Who is Pat Crowley?
Pat Crowley spent more than a decade in sustainable food and water work, including jobs as a hydrologist, climate modeler and agronomist, before turning to insects. Inspired by a 2011 TED talk on eating insects, he founded Chapul in Utah in 2012 after a Kickstarter campaign, selling what the company called the first commercial edible-insect protein in the U.S., beginning with cricket-flour protein bars. On Shark Tank Season 5 (2014), Mark Cuban invested $50,000 for 15%. Chapul then reached hundreds of stores, including Sprouts, and added cricket powders, but repeat purchases proved hard to win.
When its co-packer shut down in 2019, Chapul exited the bar business. Crowley shifted to insect agriculture: Chapul Farms builds black soldier fly larvae operations that turn organic waste into animal and aquaculture feed and fertilizer. He launched it in partnership with KIND founder Daniel Lubetzky, and it operates an innovation center on a 600-acre regenerative farm in McMinnville, Oregon. Crowley also chairs the industry advisory board of a National Science Foundation center for insect agriculture research.
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