Charles Kenny doubts that their brand of business ventures can accomplish much on their own:
The problems with the social enterprise approach start with the challenge of being small. Aspire is currently working in Mexico, where grasshoppers regularly appear on restaurant menus. At the moment, the insects cost six times more per kilogram than beef or chicken. The enterprise hopes that by significantly scaling production – factory-farming the insects – they can dramatically reduce that price.
That’s a significant hurdle. Small startups rarely go global. Not, at least, without governmental buy-in. … Fixing the infrastructure problems and low-quality health and education services takes more, better government – even if the services are contracted out. For all the valuable work they do, social entrepreneurs can’t replace the state’s role, and they can’t function nearly as effectively where governments are poor, incompetent, or corrupt.
The Dish 