Photo: Coast Protein Kickstarter
If a Vancouver company has its way we’ll all be eating crickets in a matter of months. That’s right: crickets.
Coast Protein launched a Kickstarter campaign today to fund an expansion of its operations and bring its cricket-based protein bars to the masses.
But why crickets, you ask?
Company co-founder Dylan Jones says he first ate crickets while traveling through Cambodia, and helped found Coast Protein after learning about the health and environmental benefits of insects as a protein source.
Billions of people around the world include insects in their diet, and that bugs are in many ways a far better source of protein than more traditional livestock.
The company’s Kickstarter page points out that crickets grow and reproduce much more quickly than livestock, require far less land and water to raise, emit much less greenhouse gas and are a complete protein source.
With Earth’s population estimated to grow by two billion by 2050, the company says its “time to try something new” to feed the planet.
Photo: Coast Protein Kickstarter
“We are four young professionals from the West Coast who are committed to leaving the world a better place than when we found it,” Coast says on its Kickstarter page. “We believe in breaking conventions, being adventurous, and doing things differently. Our mission is to make delicious insect-based products that become a normal everyday food source to help people live healthy, sustainable lifestyles.”
Coast Protein’s bars are made from ground-up crickets, and naturally sweetened with honey and dried fruits, which the company claims complements the “nutty, earthy taste” of the crickets.
Founded in 2015, Coast has been selling its products in the Vancouver area since the fall of 2016.
With their Kickstarter campaign Jones, Chris Baird, John Larigakis and Stefanie Di Giovanni hope to raise $20,000 to move to a larger facility, produce retail-ready packaging and ramp up their production.
“It’s time for big change, and it can come for something little,” the company says.
For more information visit Coast Protein’s website or Kickstarter page.
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