Crickets and Conspiracies

 

About the Conspiracy  

 I just uncovered a note to myself from back in the summer. In it, I had noticed a CBC article about a conspiracy involving the crickets now being raised in a factory here in good old London, Ontario. Apparently these little livestock are part of a "sinister totalitarian plot" promoted by a "cabal of shadowy elites" who "are trying to force us to eat insects. Seriously. 

   It is likely that you may have missed the article, so I will resurrect it here and present it as proof that conspiratorial thinking also occurs north of the border. As well, I will provide additional cricket information. The rationale for doing so is not obvious, so I will make it so. I have already written about our new cricket factory and about the consumption of them and other insects (see, Entomophagy.) If you combine the information already offered with what is about to be presented, you will have amassed a considerable amount of information about crickets. That will likely surprise you, but not nearly as much as I was surprised to learn that I am again writing about crickets. 

   What follows will not be so convoluted and will be presented like PowerPoint points, rather than in long, quirky sentences. Sources are provided, as usual, so you can go directly to more reliable and better written material. The short points follow this long introduction about the CBC piece.

The CBC Exposure

   The CBC title is a good one and should serve as a piquer (that is not a French word, but an invented one of mine. It should pique your interest.) "HOW A LONDON, ONT., CRICKET PLANT FOUND ITSELF AT THE HEART OF AN INTERNATIONAL CONSPIRACY THEORY, 7 DAYS AFTER THE FACTORY WAS BUILT, IT WAS FALSELY IMPLICATED IN A GLOBAL CONSPIRACY." by Colin Butler, CBC, Aug. 29, 2022. 

   It is quite long and well done. A timeline relating to the spread of the theory is offered as well as some comments by a professor here in London who teaches about conspiracies. A link is provided above, but here are some bits that may pique your interest. It's a conspiracy theory, so needless to say, the WEF, Jews and deniers of all sorts are involved. If they have their way, you will no longer be eating beef tenderloin.

   "The conspiracy theory has been circulating for months, amplified and published by hawkers of online misinformation in Canada and elsewhere in English and Chinese, often with the falsehood growing more sweeping or outrageous with each iteration. 

Those spreading the myth aren't just online bloggers and anonymous social media accounts. The falsehoods are also spread and tweaked by a number of political operators to suit their agenda, including the Alberta separatist movement and politicians like a sitting MP and a Conservative Party of Canada leadership hopeful. 

CBC News charted the history of how this conspiracy theory grew, from a single tweet by an Ontario construction company to being used as rhetoric in the Conservative Party of Canada leadership campaign. 

The timeline of the theory's growth

The entire thread begins simply enough with a tweet on June 10 from the Toronto-based construction company Ellis Don, announcing it had just completed work on the world's largest cricket production facility. 

The information was picked up a week later by Awakening Canada, a Facebook group that posts misinformation about the pandemic and conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum.

The June 17 post was published shortly after midnight, asking: "Are you guys ready to eat some crickets welcome to communist Canada." It got 10 shares among the page's 4,600 followers. 

Eight hours later, the false information was repeated by Mike McMullen, a London, Ont., political candidate who ran for the People's Party of Canada in the last federal election, and a candidate for city councillor in this October's municipal elections...."

False info persists

Back on June 17, information about cricket consumption for humans continued to be shared on Facebook in Chinese on this page. According to Facebook's translation algorithm, followers are told the cricket factory is part of the "'Great Reset' agenda to stop the people from owning everything and implement the major food chain." 

On June 18, a similar post appears on Black Sheep Truth Media, a Facebook group that features numerous conspiracy theories with the caption: "The planned food shortages now offers a solution. Not to worry now, there will be plenty to eat folks."

The information has been reaching more people, with at least 292 shares and 164 comments among the page's 30,000 followers. It is also flagged as false information by Facebook after being singled out by independent fact checkers. 

Next, on June 22, the conspiracy is repeated by Tanner Hnidey, the vice-president of economics with the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), a provincial separatist group. 

Hnidey posts a video to his personal Facebook titled "We're going to keep eating Alberta Beef!" 

"I do not intend to eat crickets or bugs for breakfast," Hnidey says in the video, falsely claiming the federal government is trying to replace beef with insect protein...."

On July 9, federal Conservative leadership hopeful Leslyn Lewis wrote a blog post with the heading, "Is animal meat being phased out?" that hints the cricket plant is part of a larger plan by the federal government to phase out meat.....

[The comment by the professor about all of this:]

"CBC News shared the timeline of the conspiracy theory's growth with Alison Meek, an associate professor of history at King's College at Western University in London, Ont., who studies conspiracy theories. 

She said the false information taps into a growing anti-government sentiment, playing on the fear and isolation many felt during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic when authorities were imposing sweeping lockdowns and health restrictions that upended many people's daily routines. 

Meek said it's clear from the timeline that the false information was twisted and manipulated by each person who spread it, adding or taking away details in order to create propaganda to suit their own agenda."

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   The timeline related to the cricket conspiracy has continued into this new year.  Here is the first paragraph from an article in the publication, American Thinker:

"Give up cheeseburgers, and eat bugs instead.  That's what the Davos elite want you to do, while they dine on $50 burritos and slabs of steak.  They would even have you feel good about being a meat- and diary-free insectivore.  To this end, they have carefully manufactured the cult of environmental alarmism, whose virtue-signaling adherents have been duped into thinking an ecological disaster is at hand." From, "Let Them Eat Bugs," Janet Levy, American Thinker, Jan. 23, 2023.

More Cricket Material

The Construction of the Cricket Factory

   EllisDon did construct the factory and the announcement is found here:

Aspire Food Group - New Production Facility. 

About Aspire - The Cricket Company

   The company website is useful and it announces that, A growing population and increasing demand for food and raw materials requires sustainable, scalable solutions that keep our world healthy.

Canadian Government Support For Aspire

   It is the case that the company received government funding in the summer of 2022. "Investment in State-of-the-art Facility For Aspire to Support Sustainable Food Production," Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, June 27, 2022.

"The Canadian agriculture sector continues to develop innovative ways to meet the demand for more sustainably grown food. Today, Francis Drouin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced on behalf of the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, an investment of up to $8.5 million for Aspire to support the building of a commercial facility to produce cricket protein.

Alternative sources of protein such as insects provide an opportunity for Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector to more sustainably meet global demand for food. Aspire's goal to tackle global food scarcity led to its focus on edible insect production, which can provide high volumes of nutritious food with a low environmental footprint.

With funding under the AgriInnovate Program, Aspire will use the latest smart technology to create the ideal growing conditions for crickets at its facility in London, Ontario. This investment will allow the company to monitor and grow billions of crickets at a time, producing a nutrient-rich protein for premium health food and pet markets. The technology will also significantly cut Aspire's cost of production, making its products more attractive for sale in domestic and international markets."

WEF Support For Insect Eating

   Early in 2022 the WEF did publish this report: "5 Reasons Why Eating Insects Could Reduce Climate Change," Feb. 9, 2022. The link is provided. It is noted that the report has been under attack: 

Help us prevent the spread of disinformation

This article has been intentionally misrepresented on sites that spread false information. Please read the piece for yourself before sharing or commenting.

The World Economic Forum is committed to publishing a wide array of opinions. Misrepresenting content diminishes open conversations.

Our consumption of animal protein is the source of greenhouses gas and climate change.

Insects are an overlooked source of protein and a way to battle climate change.

The consumption of insects can offset climate change in many ways.

Thinking About Entomophagy?

   See this video offered by the New York Times: "The Joy of Cooking (Insects)," Tala Schlossberg, et al, (no date) 
Mealworm soup. Chile-lime cricket tacos. Charred avocado tartare with ant larvae.

"In the West, edible insects have long been the domain of food adventurers, with few other takers — even as billions of people elsewhere on the planet count insects as a part of their traditional diets.

But as we explore in the Opinion Video above, a growing tribe of environmentalists, academics and entrepreneurs are arguing that edible insects must enjoy a wider acceptance to help create a more sustainable global food system and save the planet."

"Salted Ants. Ground Crickets. Why You Should Try Edible Insects," Carolyn Beans, Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2022. 

"Sanchez encourages people to eat insects, in part, to lighten environmental footprints. Farmed insects produce far less greenhouse gas and require much less land and water than conventional livestock. Insects also generate more biomass with less input. Crickets, for example, are 12 times more efficient than cows at converting feed into edible weight.

Already, 2 billion people eat insects, according to one estimate — primarily in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia. The practice dates back millennia. “I always thought, even back in the ’90s, someday, maybe, [Americans] will do this,” Sanchez says."

Thinking About Getting Into the Cricket Business?

   Here is an abstract of a market research report indicating billions can be made. 

"Edible Insects Market by Product (Whole Insect, Insect Powder, Insect Meal, Insect Oil), Insect Type (Crickets, Black Soldier Fly, Mealworms), Application (Animal Feed, Protein Bars, Bakery, Confectionery, Beverages), and Geography—Forecast to 2030’, provides an in-depth analysis of the edible insects market in five major geographies and emphasizes on the current market trends, market sizes, market shares, recent developments, and forecasts for 2030. In terms of value, the Edible Insects Market is expected to reach $9.60 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 28.3% during the forecast period 2022–2030. In terms of volume, the Edible Insects Market is expected to reach 3,139,035.10 tonnes by 2030, at a CAGR of 31.1% during the forecast period 2022–2030.

The 237 page report will cost you $4,175 (US).

The Bonus (finally)

  For another example of conspiratorial thinking in London, see my post about 9/11.

  You probably failed to notice that the name of a food writer above is "Carolyn Beans", an example of an aptronym.

CRICKET

  For those of you who thought all of this might be about the sport, see my "Sports News From Elsewhere." You will learn that real money can be made in cricket. 

  If, on the other hand, you don't know a "googly" from a "lolly" see: "15 Corker Cricket Terms, Deciphered", Angela Tung, mentalfloss.com, May 5, 2016.