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In 2050, there will be[br]10 billion people on Earth.

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Ten billion people that need to be fed.

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Ten billion people living off[br]the resources of a planet

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that is already unable to sustain[br]the 7 billion people living today.

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Or at least not in the way[br]we currently operate.

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We all agree that to live, we need food,[br]and, in particular, proteins.

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With wild resources being limited[br]and sometimes hard to obtain,

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we farm: pigs, chickens, fish.

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But to produce one kilogram[br]of farmed fish,

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we need to use five kilograms[br]of wild fish as feed.

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The consequence? Fish stocks[br]are being depleted.

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Same thing with chickens,[br]which we feed with soy.

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The more chicken we eat,[br]the more soy we need.

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And to grow more soy, we need[br]to deforest areas, like the Amazon.

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We are destroying whole ecosystems[br]to produce more food.

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And paradoxically,[br]we don't eat everything we produce.

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One third of the food we produce[br]will never be consumed by a human.

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One third.

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We're producing waste and destroying[br]our planet in the process.

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So why am I telling you this?

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My brother got married this summer.

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I had the honor of being a witness.

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On the day of the wedding,

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before his friends and family,[br]and before the mayor,

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the marriage certificate was read out,

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and the witnesses' names[br]and professions were given.

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Raphael Smia, fly farmer.

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Yes, I farm flies.

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To be more specific,[br]I use insects to reclaim bio-waste

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in order to produce proteins and lipids[br]for animal feed and green chemistry.

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OK, I've lost you.

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What I do is gather bio-waste,[br]like rotten apples from the supermarket

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or food scraps from a restaurant.

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We take all that, we grind it up,[br]we mix it all up,

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and we put it in our bio-reactors[br]with insect larvae.

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Our larvae love waste and rotting things.

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To each their own.[br]They eat, grow and fatten up.

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And when they've gotten[br]enough proteins and fats in them,

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they're used as animal feed.

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Chickens don't naturally eat[br]South American-grown GMO soy.

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No. They eat insects.[br]Same thing for fish.

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Yet, this is the model we've been given.

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We grow grain that we feed[br]to our livestock,

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we harvest it, we turn it into food,[br]we eat it, or we throw it out.

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Farming insects makes it possible[br]to recover the nutrients

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which remain in this waste

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and to reinsert those nutrients[br]back into the human food cycle.

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We go from a linear model[br]to a circular economy.

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So, who is this superhero of recycling?

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Let me introduce to you[br]the black soldier fly.

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This shows that the flies[br]in France aren't all white.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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So a quick lesson on flies.[br]A fly lays eggs.

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Larvae hatch from these eggs.

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If there's just one, no problem.[br]But more than one, and look out!

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The larvae eat, and when they've[br]eaten enough, they become pupae.

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A pupa is sort of like a cocoon for a fly.

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After a few weeks,[br]a new fly emerges from the pupa.

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And this fly is the ideal farm animal.

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First of all, it's harmless.

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It doesn't sting. It doesn't bite.[br]It doesn't transmit disease.

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The adult fly actually doesn't even eat.

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The only things it does is drink[br]and look for mates.

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Sort of like if you were to spend[br]your whole life in a nightclub.

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(Laughter)

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And because adult flies don't eat,

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they don't spread germs as they go[br]from our garbage to our plates.

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And also, they exist[br]naturally in France,

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so there's no risk of ecological disaster,[br]like with the Asian lady beetle.

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Lastly, and most importantly,[br]black solider fly larvae are scavengers.

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They can eat and process[br]all different kinds of waste,

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while creating none themselves,

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since even their excrement[br]can be used as fertilizer.

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So, now you get it.[br]These flies are perfect!

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The only thing we needed[br]was to domesticate them.

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That's what we did with my associate,[br]Jean-François Kleinfinger.

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We built our first laboratory[br]in the Loire-Atlantique department,

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in a stable.

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In it, we built a climate chamber,

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which is a hermetically sealed chamber

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in which we can control[br]temperature, humidity,

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and all that, inside.

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I can tell you that for someone like me,

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who has trouble putting[br]IKEA furniture together,

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this was a pretty big challenge.

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We got our first larvae, we fed them,

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and we waited impatiently[br]for the first fly.

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And here it is!

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The first fly[br]from the NextAlim laboratory.

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I have to tell you[br]my family and friends were wary.

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Especially my grandma,

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who asked when I was[br]going to get a real job.

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And I get where they're coming from.

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I was digging through supermarkets' trash.

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I spent my time watching[br]and waiting impatiently

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for flies to mate.

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And I was putting larvae[br]into different situations

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to see how they would react.

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For example, black soldier fly larvae[br]behave in a peculiar way.

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When they've finished eating,

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they migrate out of their substrate,[br]out of their food source.

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This has its advantages and disadvantages.

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The advantage is that there's no need[br]to harvest the larvae one by one.

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That's pretty nice.

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The disadvantage is that they can migrate[br]when we don't expect it.

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That's what happened[br]with our first generation.

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We built them bins with ramps[br]to facilitate their migration.

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The ramps were precisely[br]45° from the ground,

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like the literature said.

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You can imagine the looks[br]on our faces the next day,

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when we found the lab[br]littered with larvae.

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The larvae had the brilliant idea[br]of going up the vertical walls

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rather than using our ramps.

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Well, anyway, the colony[br]is making progress.

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And we even want to optimize our set-up,

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like the number of matings, egg clutches.

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This involves playing[br]with different parameters:

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light, temperature, and a bit of music.

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(Barry White - "You're the First,[br]the Last, My Everything")

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No, seriously,[br]music really works with flies too!

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(Laughter)

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We domesticated the flies,[br]and with that success,

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we were able to raise funds

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from private partners[br]and also from public partners,

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who supported the project[br]to the tune of several million euros.

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What those funds, we were able to build[br]a slightly more professional laboratory,

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to conduct more thorough experiments,

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and, most importantly, to determine[br]the process and to draw up the plans

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for the first industrial[br]insect farming factory.

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In 2017, we will be able to process[br]13,000 metric tons of bio-waste,

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and to produce 4,000 metric tons[br]of larvae per year.

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And 4,000 tons of larvae,[br]that's about 20 million times this.

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And all that, with a single plant.[br]But that's not all.

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Bio-waste can be found[br]everywhere in France.

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We will set ourselves up as close[br]as possible to bio-waste producers

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to be able to produce local proteins.

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But that's not all.

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With one ton of bio-waste,

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we can also make 300 kilograms[br]of fertilizer, 75 liters of bio fuel.

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That's a full tank of gas.

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In 10 years, we'll be able[br]to replace 50% of fish meal.

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Still, insect farming isn't a panacea

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that can save the planet[br]and prevent the world's end.

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But for a more sustainable,[br]healthier society, every step counts.

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Even the steps of flies.

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(Applause)