Kubo Dzamba is not a farmer.
He is an architect that operates and maintains Mississauga’s smallest farm, a pioneer in urban agriculture.
By the 2050, the world’s population will hit 9.7 billion.
According to the UN, the world’s food production rate will need to double to sustain that many people.
Pair that rate with the future catastrophe of climate change, increased rate of carbon emissions and the decrease of arable lands, it’s inevitable that humankind will soon be facing a food crisis.
Dzamba’s answer to that crisis is Third Millennium Farming (3MF), a 3,000 sq. foot facility wedged behind an adult entertainment lounge and an autobody shop on the outskirts of Pearson International Airport.
3MF specializes in designing, manufacturing and selling equipment for cricket farming.
Dzamba and his small team have spent years tinkering with the success rate of farming crickets, from ideal temperatures to placement of food and water sources.
“Our technology is designed to be accessible to anybody,” he said.
Unlike the major players in insect farming, who operate on what Dzamba calls a “mega-farm model,” he believes the future of the industry lays in the hands of everyday people.
By providing the equipment and literature on how to successfully farm crickets, it becomes that much easier for the public to one, experiment with edible insects and two, make a viable profit.
One such piece of equipment is the Chirpbox, a 40-foot turnkey cricket farm housed in a shipping container.
Fairly easy to use, it’s designed to hook into heat and electricity outlets and can be left alone for three weeks (besides filling water and feed) for the crickets to be harvested, 3MF supplies the eggs.
According to Dzamba, one Chirpbox can yield approximately $6,000 in profit, depending on what the crickets are used for.
“We’re trying to make everything as cheap as possible, we’re finding ways of sharing profits with our customers, so, they have to be successful before we get anything in return.”
Crickets are a multi-purpose product.
They can be used for animal feed or turned into powder to add to food products (or just eaten whole) and their byproduct is a natural pesticide and bloom stimulant.
One of Dzamba’s first Chirpbox sells was to a bakery in Alberta, who use crickets in their baked goods.
A 2013 UN report touted the benefits of increased insect consumption for Western society.
Not only are crickets more sustainable to farm (it takes 100 gallons of water to make 6 grams of beef or 240 grams of crickets), they are an alternative form of protein.
Crickets are 69 per cent protein, compared to beef at 29 per cent and they emit considerably lower greenhouse gas emissions than most livestock.
Although the public perception of edible insects is still largely negative, Dzamba has seen a change in attitude in the past years and hopes to see it continue.
“I've been really pleasantly surprised at progress it's made so far. Like 10 or 12 years ago years ago when I started this, it was almost like violent, the reaction was really not happy.”