Are packing-material peanuts edible?

If anyone’s familiar with Iron Chef America, a recent challenger used packing material (looked like packing peanuts) as part of one of his dishes. I thought it was some sort of joke at first, but apparently, the stuff is edible, albeit not very tasty.

…Is this really true? Can I eat those packing peanuts I get with my packages? Throw them in my salads and stuff?