Entomophagy

Cricket Farming

   The fancy word I used to get your attention has to do with the eating of insects. That is our subject for today. I raise it because I read a good related article yesterday in the London Free Press. The article also actually contained some good news and it was good in that it was done by one of the last surviving local reporters. 

   Norman De Bono (the reporter) revealed that, London will become home to the world’s largest indoor cricket farm with Aspire Food Group opening a 100,000-square-foot plant here that will act as a launch pad to bring bugs, as food, to the North American market....At the plant, crickets will be hatched and grown on-site and will become a tasteless, odourless protein powder that will be sold as a food additive, and will also be used to make protein bars. I do think that attracting such a company is a good thing  and I am glad that London seems to be focussing on the food sector as an area for economic development, even as the city continues to expand onto good agricultural land. If we can't grow food, perhaps we can at least process and manufacture some.

   I will provide more information below about the raising of crickets for food. There is, for example, another cricket farm in Norwood, Ontario and you can already buy their cricket powder at local grocery stores. I know all of this because I did some investigative reporting of my own. I did so because I was aware of a use for a major by-product of cricket raising and I wanted to see if it was mentioned. It was not, but I am sure these new food entrepreneurs must be aware of the potential profit to be made from the poop of crickets.

Kricket Krap

   The hobby of my last father-in-law was raising tomatoes. Starting them from seeds under lights in the basement in the early Canadian spring, he nurtured them through the summer and talked about them throughout the entire year. It was for that reason that I gave him as a present some high grade organic fertilizer. This stocking stuffer came in the form of a package of cricket crap from Georgia. Perhaps the choice of such a gift explains why I had more than one father-in-law. In any case, that is why I noticed the article about the new London cricket farm.

   Although I did not find any mention of cricket crap in any of the current articles I did learn that the company in Georgia which provided my father-in-law with Kricket Krap back at the end of the last century is still producing it in this one. If you are interested in crickets as food or as the producers of fertilizer read on.

Sources:

   The article about the local cricket business: "Edible Insects: London's Agri-Food Sector Lands Unique Factory," Norman De Bono, London Free Press, July 21, 2020. 

   The website of the Aspire Food Group is here.  The company also has an operation in Austin, Texas and for some additional information about the company see: 

"How To Breed a Tasty Cricket," Phil McCausland, The Atlantic, Sept, 24, 2015. and

"This Giant Automated Cricket Farm is Designed to Make Bugs a Mainstream Source of Protein," Adele Peters, Fast Company, Aug. 17, 2018.

   The other Ontario cricket producer is Entomo Farms. For additional information see: "Bugs As Livestock? A Canadian Insect Farm is Taking Cricket Powder Mainstream," CBC, Mar. 9, 2018 and "Family of Cricket Farmers Tries Not To Take Their Work Home," Donovan Vincent, Toronto Star," Mar. 31, 2018.

   To buy your own cricket poop go to Bricko Farms in Augusta, Georgia.  Articles about Kricket Krap were circulated by Knight-Ridder back in 1991. See: "Jiminy Cricket! Droppings Make Great Fertilizer," Baltimore Sun, Nov. 3, 1991 and "They Call It What It Is and Sales Haven't Been the Same Since," Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 6, 1991.

   Wikipedia has an entry for Entomophagy and a good piece about it was produced by the folks at University of California, Riverside: Entomophagy (Eating Insects). 

   To grow your own, buy: Cricket Breeding Made Easy or Cricket Farming: The Ultimate DIY Guide. 

The Bonus: 

   Think you would never eat insects - you already are:

However, many westerners unwittingly eat insects or insect parts every day without knowing about it!! It has been estimated that the average American eats about two pounds of dead insects and insect parts a year. These bugs are in vegetables, rice, beer, pasta, spinach and broccoli. The US Food and Drug Administration has allowable insect parts per certain food types. For example, beer which is made from hops, can contain up to 2,500 aphids per 10 grams of hops!!! (From the UC Riverside piece noted above.)