Maybe it was just bad luck, bad timing and bad buzz.
But that sound you hear in Canada’s largest insect protien factory, is literally, the deafening roar of crickets.
That’s because Aspire Food Group — home to the world’s largest cricket-processing facility in London, ON — has quietly gone into receivership, bringing its bug-powered ambitions to a screeching halt.
That’s because the London plant, which was supposed to be a protein-packed poster child for climate-friendly food innovation, announced late last week that it is now under court-supervised restructuring.
Aspire’s 150,000 sq ft cricket-processing facility was going to save the planet one crunchy arthropod at a time. Compared to traditional livestock, they produce up to 30-60 times less carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions, require minimal water, land, and feed, and are considered one of the most sustainable protein sources.
Instead, it’s now a case study in how quickly the buzz can wear off.
Despite tens of millions in investments, taxpayer subsidies, and glowing endorsements from the likes of Bill Gates, it turns out Canada’s edible insect revolution is still hard to swallow.
The company was founded in 2013 by five McGill students who won the $1 million Hult Prize for student entrepreneurship granted by the Clinton Global Initiative to solve world hunger.
In January of 2022, the Trudeau government gave the company an $8.5 million grant to build the plant, which is capable of housing four billion crickets and churning out 13 million kilograms of edible crickets annually.
That prompted Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to accuse Trudeau of wanting to ‘shove’ crickets down Canadians’ throats. “Justin Trudeau bet $9 million of your money on edible BUGS! He wants Canadians to own nothing, be happy, and eat crickets. Patriotic Canadians will NOT eat bugs.”
Despite the cash infusion, the company had struggled for at least the past two years, after laying off more than 130 of its 150 employees, grappling with trade tariffs and reportedly struggling to raise capital while juggling $41.5 million in debt to Farm Credit Canada.
Despite the cash infusion, the company had struggled for at least the past two years, after laying off more than 130 of its 150 employees, grappling with trade tariffs and reportedly struggling to raise capital while juggling $41.5 million in debt to Farm Credit Canada.
Ironically, Aspire’s crash landing comes just as the global insect protein market is projected to quadruple by 2032, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 16%.
Aspire’s CEO David Rosenberg, a vertical farming veteran brought in to steer the ship last year, insisted the company had made “very significant” improvements in cricket yields.
But those tiny gains weren’t enough to overcome trade uncertainties — including a brief (but disruptive) episode of Trump-era tariffs on Canadian exports to the US, Aspire’s main market for pet food-grade crickets.
For now, Aspire is clinging to a court-appointed receiver, with aspirations (no pun intended) of finding a buyer or partner to save what’s left of the high-tech cricket farm.
The company says it’s still in talks to salvage operations and preserve its lofty dream of scaling sustainable protein for the masses. The company’s website touts the tiny creature — considered vermin by Prairie farmers — as ”arguably our planet’s tiniest livestock, the cricket is an incredible source of complete protein with all essential amino acids for people and pets.”
But until then, the $8.5 million in federal funding and all that crunchy optimism may have gone the way of yesterday’s locust swarm — vanished in the wind, leaving little more than a very expensive pile of exoskeletons.
