I've been saying this for years

For our downscaled-dining future, Trenor advocates shellfish. They breed rapidly and can be farmed in large numbers sustainably. (Much has been learned, over the last decade, from the ecological havoc wrought by unsustainable shrimp farming.)

Because shellfish eat sea-borne plankton and bacteria, "when we farm them we don't need to feed them. When we farm them, we create protein without having to give them any protein."

Commercially farming clams, oysters and mussels keeps their wild populations intact. And no link on the food chain is disposable -- even when that link is wasp larvae.

Bugs, too, can be farmed easily and sustainably -- requiring a mere fraction of the space, resources and cost entailed in farming large animals. About twenty pounds of feed yields less than two pounds of beef but more than ten pounds of insect meat, according to studies performed at the Netherlands' Wageningen University, a major research hub in the growing field of entomophagy, aka the eating of bugs. As a food crisis looms on a damaged planet, what was once a freaky fringe movement is now no joke.

"When you raise insects, you don't need fertilizer. You don't need water. You don't need land. You don't need hard labor or heavy machinery. You just need a room full of bins," says entomophagist and bug chef Dave Gracer, who ate a toasted cicada live on "The Colbert Report" and runs Rhode Island-based Small Stock Foods.

Read the whole post at AlterNet

Bugs and Krill, the Other White Meats: Time to Start Eating at the Bottom of the Food Chain
by Anneli Rufus

When I was a kid summering on Cape Cod, shellfish were abundant and free for the picking. Not anymore. Now buying shellfish is fairly expensive, and one never knows about the water from which it was taken. Sea farming generally eliminates these problems with shellfish, although it can create problems with other fish. Plus, eating shellfish regularly is good for heart health.

Insects? Just remember that it's all in the mind. When I used to travel in my youth, I found that there was nothing a couple beers wouldn't wash down.

And most of this stuff actually tastes really good when it is expertly spiced, as traditional cultures that eat like this do when they prepare food. This is a huge entrepreneurial opportunity that is being largely overlooked so far in developed countries.

Availability of real resources? No problem here.