Minnesota's newest agricultural specialty: Crickets?
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Minnesota is an agricultural powerhouse. We produce corn, soybeans, hogs, turkeys and … crickets?
Pat and Madeline Revier run Revier Family Farms, a cricket farm in Moorhead, Minn. There, they raise over a million crickets for human and animal consumption.
How’d the Reviers get into cricket farming? Pat told host Cathy Wurzer that he grew up on a dairy farm, and he recently he got the itch to return to the farming lifestyle. He stumbled upon crickets as a space-efficient agricultural option.
When Pat first brought the idea to Madeline, she told him, “Are you insane?” But after doing some research, she got excited about crickets as a sustainable source of protein. According to Madeline, raising crickets requires less land, feed and water than traditional sources of protein, and it’s lighter in greenhouse gas emissions.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
Crickets are also extremely versatile as a food product, Madeline said. You can fry them whole, but they’re more frequently used in a ground flour/powder form in baking. Madeline shared her recipe for Chocolate Chirp Cookies (made with cricket flour):
Visit the Revier Family Farms website to purchase crickets and cricket products. Madeline is also looking for a catchy new name for her ABCC (apples, bran, cinnamon and cricket flour) muffins. If you've got a great idea, send it to us at minnesotanow@mpr.org!
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
