A cricket farm in Norwood, Ontario has gained the attention of Maple Leaf Foods and Loblaws.

Earlier this year, Loblaws announced they will be carrying Entomo Farms cricket powder in their stores, and Maple Leaf Foods has now become a minority stakeholder in the business.

Entomo Farms produces whole roasted crickets and cricket and mealworm powders to ship to markets all over the world, and have become North America's largest insect farm for human consumption.

The company has grown to 60,000 square feet of production space.

President of Entomo Farms, Jarrod Goldin, says his brothers originally grew insects for reptiles, but the brothers then all became interested in raising insects as a sustainable choice for human consumption.

Goldin says, they recognized the consumer demand to be able to understand all the ingredients in a product when reading the packaging.

"Food that's functional, food that contributes to wellness, to health, and we thought that there was a pent up demand for that kind of market, especially when you added a value of sustainability."

He says, insect protein seemed to meet all the criteria of what these consumers were looking for, thus Entomo Farms was born in January of 2014.

Goldin says, for the cricket farm they renovate old chicken barns with thousands of cardboard dividers to create burrowing places for the crickets.

"It's about a six a week cycle. The insects only live about six to seven weeks, so we're culling them at the end of their life cycle, and they're fed a basic grain and mineral diet with constant access to running water."

Inside the cricket barns. Photo Courtesy of Entomo Farms.

He says, the cricket feces, also known as frass, has an interesting agricultural value.

"The frass is a fantastic natural organic fertilizer. We're just building out that part of our business now as well. We have a lot of organic farmers all interested in how the frass can enhance yields, keep the quality of the soil, keep the quality of the root systems of different plants, you know we have a lot of anecdotal studies to show the value proposition of the frass."

Goldin says, one day they hope to use cricket feces to grow the grain the insects eat, which will enhance the sustainability of their operation.

And the burning question everyone is wondering is how does the cricket powder taste?

"The only issue is it's very anticlimactic," Goldin says. "When you try it, it's going to taste just like food. It's going to taste familiar, it's going to remind you of other things you've already eaten, and there's no kind of out of this world moment, but you will notice health benefits."

33 per cent of the world or over 2 billion people eat insect protein every day as part of their diet.

Photo courtesy of Entomo Farms.

 

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