Feeding Reptiles and Humans

The 60,000 square foot barn is where you’ll find a colony of crickets creating a cacophony with their chirps. One of the largest cricket farms in Canada, the Norwood, Ontario-based Entomo Farms has gone from only feeding reptiles to now, humans as well.

Established by two Goldin brothers Darren and Ryan about 12 years ago, Entomo Farms produced crickets, mealworms and more in abundance. But their consumers didn’t go beyond reptiles. It was only in 2014 that the idea of bugs for human consumption came in after the 2013 UN Report Edible Insects: Future

Prospects For Food And Feed Safety and the third brother, Jarrod joined in.

As we speak, about a 100 million crickets chirp away at the farm. Some ready to be harvested, while others await their turn. The years of experience has ensured that there is a constant flow of crickets at any point, ready to be roasted or churned into flour.

Crickets are usually farmed in a way in which they have to be transferred from one chamber to another as they grow. To minimize labour and save time, Entomo Farms has developed Cricket Condos. Stemming from Darren’s head, the idea of the condos is to allow the bugs to swarm around like in their natural habitat. The crickets are allowed to fly around from one feed station to another and can live deep inside the condos until they are ready for harvesting, which comes at the end of their life cycle.

The recent awareness and ‘it’ factor around eating insects has naturally increased the demand for crickets. With chefs and adventurous eaters opening up their appetite to healthier meat options, these cricket farmers are trying their best to educate anyone who’ll listen about the benefits of biting into a crunchy cricket or a mealworm. The farm also produces different products to encourage bug consumption. And, you can buy everything from cricket flour to a bag of roasted and flavoured crickets or mealworms from their website.