“Eat Government Bugs”

A London, Ont., cricket factory that produces insects used as pet food has found itself at the heart of a sweeping international conspiracy theory whose purveyors claim a cabal of shadowy elites are trying to force the population to eat insects as part of a sinister totalitarian plot.

The conspiracy theory has been circulating for months, amplified and published by hawkers of online misinformation in Canada and elsewhere in English and Chinese, often with the falsehood growing more sweeping or outrageous with each iteration.

Those spreading the myth aren’t just online bloggers and anonymous social media accounts. The falsehoods are also spread and tweaked by a number of political operators to suit their agenda, including the Alberta separatist movement and politicians like a sitting MP and a Conservative Party of Canada leadership hopeful.

My day job is a boring one, and because of that, I try to alleviate the mind-numbing tedium by listening to podcasts. One of those is Bill Whittle’s podcast, which incidentally features Stephen Green and Alfonzo Rachel, both of whom I interviewed on my radio show years ago and who will probably disavow all knowledge of the same. Can’t say that I blame them. Reputations, you know. But enough about me, let’s talk about the long, slow descent of our nation into Dante’s Ninth Circle! That’s always good for a laugh. Or a double Scotch, neat.

Canadian food suppliers are once again issuing notices to grocery retailers informing them of upcoming price hikes.

The letters signal more price increases will hit grocery stores this fall in a year that has already seen nearly double digit increases in food costs.

In some cases, the higher prices are due to the Canadian Dairy Commission’s approval of a second milk price increase this year, that which will see farm gate milk prices go up about two cents per litre, or 2.5 per cent, on Sept. 1.

Conservative Party of Canada MP and leadership candidate Dr. Leslyn Lewis blasted the current cancel-culture crusade against red meat through pushing bugs as a source of food.

“Mega corporations shouldn’t be buying up all our farmland. Governments shouldn’t be interfering in how we farm. Bugs are not beef. Let’s stand up for farmers and protect our food security,” Lewis tweeted Saturday in reference to a report about a government-subsidized cricket farm being opened in Canada.