MOORHEAD CRICKET FARM PIVOTS TO SELLING LIVE INSECTS By Tammy Swift | The Forum
I
nside the rented garage of an unremarkable concrete-block building in a Moorhead industrial park, summer never ends. The interior temperature hovers at 80 degrees, even as piercing winds blow outside. The air smells earthy, organic and, to the untrained nostril, unidentifiable. (Spoiler alert: It’s cricket droppings.) And a symphony of male crickets — all sounding like tiny, off-key violins — keep creak, creak, creaking in their hopeful efforts to attract a willing mate. Welcome to Revier Family Farms. Here, Pat Revier and his nephew, Thomas Theilen, run what is arguably the community’s first and only cricket farm. Their days are filled with incubating, feeding, watering, packaging and shipping European household crickets, ranging from tiny “pinhead” babies to plump and stately adults. Last February, Pat and his wife, Madeline, first shared plans to raise crickets to be dried and ground into a
cricket “flour.” The high-protein, nutrientpacked flour is gaining popularity among high-performance athletes and some customers with gluten allergies. Just over a year later, the Reviers’ operation has grown to the equivalent of a bug bonanza farm, with over 1 million jumping Jiminies chirping, eating, mating and laying eggs in the 300 or so storage bins stacked atop three towering rows of wooden shelves. Wanted, dead or alive: crickets News of the Reviers’ new venture had already brought in pre-orders for cricket flour. But for them, the pandemic has been a double-edged sword, Pat says. On the one hand, it created the ideal opportunity for them to quit their jobs and set up a cricketopia. But on the other, the drying equipment needed to dehydrate crickets comes from China, which is already bogged down by material shortages and transportation jams. Continued on page 36
Photos by Tammy Swift / The Forum
Pictured above: Pat Revier shows off one of the European household crickets from Revier Family Farms.
Pennock, MN
320.599.4466 Call us for all of your Barn Remodel needs
Ritchie Fountains, Ventilation, cuRtains, stalling, headlocks, kRaibuRg Mats, concRete and ag constRuction.
Our Family Serving Families for Over 43 Years!
For More Information go to: www.FladeboeLand.com Services We Offer: • Auctions • Listings • Appraisals • Private Sale Negotiations • Complimentary Consultations For more information call Kristine: 320-212-9379 Glen: 651-208-3262 Dale: 320-894-9392
Farmland Professionals Since 1978
West Central Tribune – March 2022 – Page 35
