Jonas House, Geography. In 2013 the United Nations published a report outlining the case for the use of insects as a sustainable source of protein for people in the West. Since then there has been an explosion of interest in the topic, but there are some significant problems with the introduction of insects into human food in places that have no significant history of eating them. The case for insect-based food products is bound up in a complex web of cultural meanings, practical concerns, social factors, and psychological associations.