Cricket Production Subsidies; Aspire Food Group’s New Plant

With food shortages being predicted in the near future (not that this was planned), it’s interesting to see what exactly is being used to fill the void. Will more production plants be built, or will new “alternatives” become available for the peons?

Not only is “Eat the bugs, bigot” more than just a meme, it seems that Canadian tax dollars are being used to subsidize these ideas. Here are some recent grants from the Federal Government.

COMPANY	DATE	SUBJECT	AMOUNT
Aspire Food Group Ltd.	Jul 10, 2020	Build Comm. Demonstration Facility	$8,500,000.00
Aspire Food Group Ltd.	Nov 1, 2021	Cricket Production, Processing Facility	$50,000.00
Casa Bonita Foods, Inc.	Aug 9, 2021	Protein Snacks With Cricket Flour	$39,000.00
Entologik Inc	Jun 18, 2020	Continuity Of Operations	$58,979.00
Entologik Inc	Aug 3, 2020	Automate The Rearing Process	$30,000.00
Gaia Protein Ltd.	Apr 1, 2021	Cricket Production Technology	$42,000.00
Grévio Inc.	May 11, 2020	Egg Laying, Hatching, Rearing Crickets	$48,800.00
Mcgill University	Nov 5, 2021	Cricket Rearing, Collection, Transformation	$30,000.00
Näak Inc.	Oct 29, 2018	Products Cooked W/Cricket Powder	$48,517.00
Näak Inc.	Sep 23, 2020	Low-Powder Cricket Energy Bars	$123,178.00
Veterinarians W/O Borders	Dec 16, 2021	Innovative Approaches, Cricket Farming	$1,999,999.00

Of course, all of this can be found by checking the list of grants that has been handed out. Such information is considered public record.

Aspire Food Group, which received $8.5 million, has been lobbying Ottawa for that money. The money isn’t yet available on the Registry, but we’ll have to check for updates. Specific agencies include:

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
• Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev)
• Global Affairs Canada (GAC)
• Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)

Good to see public money spent so wisely.

Despite the Open Gov site lists $8.5 million, apparently, it obtained over $16 million in capital under Canada’s Innovation Supercluster Initiative. Other projects being funded are available on the Protein Industries webpage. Clearly, crickets is just one topic within this category, and much more will have to be done on it.

“Protein Industries” is 1 of 5 areas which Ottawa is expected to pump money into. It seems they really are trying to get rid of meat — real meat — worldwide. Or is that just another conspiracy theory?

Although it went unnoticed by many, Aspire did announce in 2020 that it would soon have the largest cricket processing plant in the world. The new plant in London, Ontario was completed in May 2022. Apparently, some 9,000 metric tons of crickets will be produced annually, both for human and animal consumption.

Aspire won the Clinton Global Initiative Hult Prize in 2013. They’ve since posted an update on their YouTube channel about where the company is heading.

Eating bugs is hardly a new concept, and has been promoted by the U.N. for many years. Now, it’s just more obvious.

There will have to be updates on this topic, but it’s rather unsettling to see this direction.

(1) https://search.open.canada.ca/grants/
(2) https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/app/secure/ocl/lrs/do/vwRg?cno=365064&regId=895467#regStart
(3) https://www.foodbev.com/news/aspire-and-collaborators-receive-13-2m-to-build-cricket-protein-facility/
(4) https://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/manufacturing/aspire-food-group-completes-production-of-manufacturing-facility-282031/
(5) https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/innovation-superclusters-initiative/en/about-canadas-innovation-superclusters-initiative
(6) https://www.proteinindustriescanada.ca/projects
(7) https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/worlds-largest-cricket-processing-plant-coming-to-london-1.5655813
(8) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGeY3TRwLJo
(9) https://news.un.org/en/story/2008/02/249402-edible-insects-provide-food-thought-un-organized-meeting