Food systems around the world are feeling the squeeze of a variety of factors including a growing human population and warming climate. As scientists look for more sustainable ways to feed people, one group of researchers have potentially found the key to cutting down on environmentally destructive meat farming.
A new study published in the Scientific Reports journal found that pythons could be a valuable low-emission source of protein if farming is scaled up and kept sustainable. Livestock farming is a notably big polluter, so the switch from meats like beef and pork to python could be a much more environmentally friendly food solution in the future.
Study co-author Dr. Daniel Natusch explained in a statement that python farming looks promising because they appear to be better suited for food production in the short term. "In terms of food and protein conversion ratios, pythons outperform all mainstream agricultural species studied to date," Natusch said. "We found pythons grew rapidly to reach ‘slaughter weight’ within their first year after hatching."
Natusch went on to share how some countries have been ahead of the snake-eating curve for years, with some countries in Asia like Thailand and Vietnam already having large-scale python farming operations in place. The study hopefully sheds some light on this burgeoning industry.
"While large-scale python farming is well established in Asia, it has received little attention from mainstream agricultural scientists," Natusch stated plainly. He went on to point out some of the ways that these reptiles are much less of an environmental strain than cows and pigs.
"Snakes require minimal water and can even live off the dew that settles on their scales in the morning. They need very little food and will eat rodents and other pests attacking food crops. And they were a delicacy, historically, in many places," he said.
Study co-author Rick Shine touted the study as the first of its kind, exploring the pros and cons of commercial snake farms and potential uses down the line.
"There are clear economic and adaptability benefits to farmers who raise pythons rather than raising pigs," Shine said. "Birds and mammals waste about 90 percent of the energy from the food they eat [by] simply maintaining a constant body temperature. But cold-blooded animals like reptiles just find a spot in the sun to get warm. They are hugely more efficient at turning the food they eat into more flesh and body tissue than any warm-blooded creature ever could."
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The study's results, then, should be encouraging for those looking to establish secure food sources in the coming decades.
"Even in its current relatively crude format, python farming appears to offer tangible benefits for sustainability and food systems resilience," the researchers wrote in the paper. "Our study suggests that python farming can not only complement existing livestock systems, but may offer better returns in terms of production efficiencies."
They noted that it the practice may be easiest to popularize in parts of the world where it already exists. Still, more work needs to be done to discover just how much better python farming is than traditional farming and how it can become a major food supply source globally.
"In countries with a cultural precedent for eating reptiles, and where food security is increasingly compromised through the impacts of global challenges such as climate change, reptiles offer an efficient, safe, and flexible source of protein," they said. "To exploit that potential, we urgently need more research into the agricultural potential of reptiles, and the most effective and humane ways to produce this novel group of livestock animals."
Pythons are rich in protein, so don't knock eating snakes as a way to hit your macros until you try it.
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