Canadian advanced manufacturing supercluster NGen is planning to revolutionise human food production by mass farming crickets. It reckons that the world’s need for cheap, plentiful protein can be met with industrial production of crickets.

NGen partner Aspire, a Canadian food production group, has begun construction of the state-of-the-art high density cricket production and demonstration facility employing 60 people in London, Ontario.

The companies claim that the production facility will be “the lowest cost, highest-density, and most ethical automated food-grade protein production system” in existence.

The demonstration project is planned as a model of Industry 4.0. According to NGen, this is the first time industrial IoT, sensors, ASRS and AI will be deployed in climate controlled, indoor vertical agriculture with living organisms.

The operations will employ industrial automation and robotics, IoT, and deep learning/analytics to farm the crickets. NGen says that crickets have a similar protein quality to meat and an environmental footprint similar or better than plants. 

The automated and modular technology can be scaled and utilised in any geography as well as across other industry sectors.

This project is the largest endeavour funded by NGen to date under the Canadian Government’s Innovation Supercluster Initiative. NGen investments help accelerate implementation, scale-up, and commercialisation of advanced technologies for manufacturing in Canada.

Aspire Aspire’s collaborators, TELUS Agriculture, A&L Canada Laboratories Inc., Swiftlabs Inc., and DarwinAI, are contributing to and will be show-casing their high performance technologies as part of the facility. 

“This is exactly the type of project the Government of Canada envisioned supporting when the Superclusters Initiative was conceived,” said the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. “This project promotes Canada’s strength and competitiveness not only in advanced manufacturing, but in multiple industries through collaboration and the application of world class technologies. It is clear that Canadian businesses have the capabilities and the expertise to develop real-world solutions for global issues, and Canada’s Superclusters are helping them make these solutions a reality.”

“The facility will establish Canada as a leader in the rapidly growing insect and protein industries. The technologies and products developed by TELUS Agriculture, Swift Labs, DarwinAI, and A&L Laboratories will accelerate technology adoption in the manufacturing and agricultural industries and grow an inclusive and digitally skilled workforce.” Mohammed Ashour, CEO and Co-Founder, Aspire Food Group