The federal government has spent $420,023 since 2018 supporting companies that make human food from crickets..“Canadians are struggling as inflation pushes up grocery bills, but subsidizing snacks made out of bugs doesn’t sound like the right solution for taxpayers,” said Franco Terrazzano, federal director of Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF). .“If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to take a bite out of crunchy crickets, he can do it without taking a bite out of taxpayers’ wallets.”.The CTF found out about the cricket corporate welfare by checking the federal government's list of grants and contributions they share with the public..Twice, the government sent money to a company in Montreal called NAAK Inc., which added up to $171,695 from taxpayers’ funds..The NAAK co-founders learned about the advantages of “the benefits of adding insects to (their) diet” and said their goal is “democratizing insect consumption.”.NAAK mainly makes "cricket energy bars," but some of the taxpayers money they received was meant for creating different cricket foods such as "steaks, sausages and falafels.".NAAK is one of five companies that raise crickets for people to eat and have received corporate welfare from the government in the past few years.. Crickets Corporate Welfare .Casa Bonita Foods plans to “manufacture high protein snacks made with cricket flour,” which is high in protein. Prairie Cricket Farms encourages people to eat “roasted crickets” or “cricket powder” mixed into breakfast cereal..The Entologik founder believes insects will be the “protein of the future.” They want to make their company “the largest producers and processor of edible insects in Canada.”.“The feds are having their ‘let them eat crickets’ moment,” said Terrazzano. .“If someone can sell crickets as food, we wish them the best of luck, but taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for it.” .Aspire Food Group, which runs a cricket processing plant in London, ON, got an extra $8.7 million in federal spending. In total, they received handouts from the government four times..The company primarily makes pet food, but the owner mentioned that around 10% of their business uses crickets to make food for people.
