12 THE CAAR COMMUNICATOR ceived regulatory approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on February 20, 2024. SureSource said that cricket frass fertilizer provides growers with a sustainable fertilizer option that does not come at the cost of yield. SureSource takes pride in turning waste into something farmers can use to create healthier soil and healthy crops. The crickets are cultivated on a state-of-the-art, closed-environment farm belonging to Aspire Food Group. The facility was designed for high-quality insect farming in London, Ontario. And while Aspire grows the crickets for food, the leftovers got SureSource thinking. SureSource received a $200,000 Ontario grant in April 2023 as part of Bioenterprise Canada’s Fertilizer Accelerating Solutions and Technology Challenge. Bioenterprise calls itself Canada’s food and agritech engine. It is made up of a community of entrepreneurs, researchers, accelerators, and partners who are looking to drive Canadian innovation in our sector. Putting its money where its mouth is, Bioenterprise divvied up $2 million equally between the 10 Challenge winners, including SureSource. The other nine winners were ALPINE, BioLiNE Corp., CanGrow Crop Solutions, CRF AgriTech LP, Escarpment Renewables, Haggerty AgRobotics, International Zeolite Corp., ReGenerate Biogas, and Woodrill Farms. The Challenge‘s goal was to “transition alternative fertilizer solutions from research and validation phases to successful commercialization and market entry.” With the funds in hand, SureSource then met up with the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre to commercialize a pelleted fertilizer made from cricket frass. Located in Vineland Station, Ontario, Vineland considers itself a leader in the research and innovation of horticultural products and technologies. Along with Aspire Food Group’s foray into using insects as a food group for human consumption, trendy TV chefs are using them with wild aplomb, and not just for shock value. Many other companies in Canada have entered the insect-as-food sector. While this writer had long ago munched on stewed inago (whole stewed, but crunchy grasshoppers) and hachi-no-ko (baby bees, aka bee larvae) in his years living in Japan—they were delicious—the insect as food craze remains two-fold for North American consumers. Insects as food continue to be an oddity or “dare” for carnival eats and treats in such fare as scorpion lollipops or cockroach candy, or it’s found as a cricket powdered mixture secreted in grocery stores within the packaged organic foods section. There, usually in a stand-up resealable pouch, the cricket powder is hailed more as a protein substitute for meat. It’s not, but it is chock-full of protein. And it didn’t taste much like anything, unlike the Japanese delicacies. While North American consumers still struggle with their gag reflex when consuming insects, the US Department of Agriculture claims that the average person annually accidentally eats up to 1 lb. (453.6 grams) of flies, maggots, and other insects. People who wore masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and a full nose/mouth mask for their sleep apnea probably consumed less. But those who farm insects still hope that North American bug powder consumption will increase. Even if it doesn’t in North America, the protein substitute is hoped to be better accepted by those countries still considered “developing.” Regardless, SureSource has, with the source materials from Aspire Food Group, enough of a cricket waste source that can be easily repurposed with the help of Vineland as a commercially viable fertilizer pellet source. SureSource said that Kickin’ Frass would be of interest to organic and greenhouse farmers. They noted that in trials, the frass-fertilizer-grown lettuce had higher chlorophyll concentrations. While high levels of chlorophyll often indicate poor water quality, in the greenhouse with automated watering, this was a good thing, meaning that the plants were able to absorb easily with less work for the plant. The company has indicated that because frass stimulates biological activity and nutrient cycling exceptionally well, the trials showed that the frass fertilizer produced the same yields as similar carbon-based fertilizers and soil amendments, but at much lower application rates. In other words, Kickin’ Frass provided more for less. SureSource said that Kickin’ Frass will initially be available as a dry crumble in bulk, in 1,000 kg/2,204 lb. totes, and 25 kg/55 lb. bags. It also offers third-party custom blending and packaging. Wait, what’s wrong with green ammonia? Although the ag community may praise the HaberBosch process, which has for decades been a scientific method to produce ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen and has helped manufacturers create fertilizers, eco-warriors often decry the science as being responsible for 1.8 percent of the world’s carbon FERTILIZER TECHNOLOGIES
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