Friday, June 20, 2014
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Kevin Bachhuber unzips the vinyl panel of a large square tent and peels back the insulated fabric that reveals a Mylar-laced chamber. Inside are some really noisy inhabitants.
These inhabitants are in plastic storage bins – the same ones you buy at any discount store – whose lids have been partially cut open and screened. As you look inside the bins, their contents wiggle, jump, crawl and, yes, chirp.
Welcome to Big Cricket Farms, the first indoor farm in the country designed to breed crickets specifically for human consumption. The company, working with the Youngstown Business Incubator, has garnered press coverage in New Scientist magazine.
“This is not a company we’d typically work with,” says Jim Cossler, CEO of the incubator. “But these are extremely bright young kids and that’s what we need in this area.”
