The massive facility run by Aspire, which the CBC describes as "a global industry leader in the production of edible insects," will generate 9,000 metric tons of crickets that can be consumed by humans and pets, Canadian Manufacturing reported.
The outlet also reported that Aspire claims to already have orders for the next two years, and Producer.com says that around four-billion crickets will soon be transferred to the facility.
With food costs rising worldwide, the company hopes more consumers will purchase crickets as a cheap source of protein.
Just 60 employees will work at the massive facility, which is mostly operated through artificial intelligence. The technology used by Aspire even landed the company on a yearly top 10 list for AI, compiled by the International Research Center in Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI), a subset of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, London Inc. magazine reported.
The awards, which will be handed out later this year, are doled out to companies that are using AI to advance the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Aspire's cricket farm harnesses the power of DarwinAI, developed by another Ontario company, to manage its automated storage and retrieval system.
"A growing population and increasing demand for food and material requires sustainable, scalable solutions," Mohammed Ashour, CEO of Aspire told London Inc. "We are honoured that the IRCAI saw the value in an AI solution which will accelerate the world's transition to sustainable ingredients and materials through insect technology."
Crunchy like crisps/chips and dependent on what type of oil an spices are thrown into the wok, very flavoursome.. although break off the hind leg as those hooks will stick in yer throat!
Finally, pair it off with a bottle of beer.
The agenda is obviously to reduce 'real' meat consumption to which I'm on the fence but its 'meat' nonetheless.