Our story
From a cricket farm in Norwood to a Canadian ingredient manufacturer.
The company was founded in 2014 to farm crickets for food at scale. Every year since has added something the plant now uses for a wider range of ingredients: a food-safety programme, a licence, documentation, and a tunnel dehydrator.
Year by year
Twelve years, one site.
Public record and company documents; nothing here is projection.
- 2014
Founded in Norwood, Ontario
Brothers Jarrod, Darren, and Ryan Goldin start farming crickets for human food under the name Next Millennium Farms.
- 2015
Renamed Entomo Farms
The company takes the Entomo Farms name and wins the innovation grand prize at the Bears’ Lair entrepreneurial competition in Peterborough.
- 2019
Premier’s Award for Innovation in Agriculture
Presented at the Ontario Excellence in Agriculture Awards in July 2019 by the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
- 2021
Safe Food for Canadians licence
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency issues the licence the plant operates under today (licence 6J8XCRFB).
- 2024
Industrial dehydration for other producers
A tunnel dehydrator, grinder, and automated washing equipment open the plant to vegetable, fruit, and herb dehydration and co-packing.
- 2025
The monthly newsletter returns
Plant news, food-safety spotlights, and trade updates, published every month and archived in the Resource Library.
- 2026
Repositioned as a manufacturer
Entomo Farms presents itself as what it has become: a Canadian food processing, dehydration, and ingredient manufacturing company, with cricket protein as one line among several.
Why it was founded
A more efficient protein, produced with food-grade discipline.
The founders set out to farm crickets for human food on a commercial scale in Canada. Crickets convert feed into protein with a fraction of what cattle need, and they can be raised, processed, and packed on one site. Doing that to a food-safety standard is what built the plant.
- One species, Gryllodes sigillatus, raised on the premises from the start.
- A process of six steps, inspected to packed, in one building.
- Routine testing on every batch, a specification sheet, and a certificate of analysis for every shipment.
- Retail products on Amazon in Canada and the United States, and bulk formats for manufacturers.
The diversification turn
The plant that cricket protein demanded now dries produce too.
Industrial dehydration, processing, and co-packing were built for crickets. In 2024 the company opened them to other producers: vegetables, fruits, and herbs dried and milled to specification for food manufacturers, health and supplement companies, and pet food companies. Cricket protein stays a flagship line; it is no longer the whole company.
Industrial dehydration
Tunnel dehydration from raw intake to a packed ingredient.
Contract food processing
Washing, drying, processing, and co-packing as one job.
Food ingredient manufacturing
Dried and milled ingredients to specification.
Novel protein ingredients
The line the plant was built on.
Where the company is going
Domestic processing, shelf-stable ingredients, export growth.
To become a leading Canadian food processing and ingredient manufacturing platform that supports food security, agricultural innovation, export growth, and sustainable food systems. That is the vision statement. In practice it means more Canadian produce processed at home, more finished ingredients leaving the country instead of raw product, and a plant in a rural Ontario community that keeps hiring.
Next step
Be part of the next chapter.
Tell us the product and the volume. A person replies within five business days.