An Exercise on Data-Based Decision Making: Comparing the Sustainability of Meat & Edible Insects

The ability to make criteria-based and thought-out decisions in everyday life as well as to answer questions pertaining to society at large, such as those regarding climate change and the loss of biodiversity, is becoming more and more important against the backdrop of an increasingly complex world with a wide range of options for action or inaction. Using the method of “data-based decision making,” this article presents a decision-making strategy for improving the evaluation competence of students that is particularly suitable for teaching socioscientific issues in the context of sustainable development. Using the example of human consumption of insects (sometimes termed “entomophagy,” although this term is defined as the consumption of insects by any organism), the students will evaluate the potential for insects as an alternative, sustainable source of protein as compared with conventional meat.