Changing food production one small step at a time | Raphael Smia | TEDxParis

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Appalled by farming methods that consume an immense amount of resources and create significant waste, Raphael, along with an associate, found a way to change the system.

After studying applied mathematics at Polytechnique, Raphael Smia obtained a master's degree in Environment in Melbourne. After returning to France, he wanted to make a positive impact on society and to contribute to creating a more sustainable world, so he founded NextAlim with Jean-François Kleinfinger. This startup, which focuses on recovery through industrial insect farming, aims to create an industry that can respond to two current major problems: food waste and the increasing scarcity of proteins.

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

Ten billion people that need to be fed.

Ten billion people living off
the resources of a planet

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

Or at least not in the way
we currently operate.

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

With wild resources being limited
and sometimes hard to obtain,

we farm: pigs, chickens, fish.

But to produce one kilogram
of farmed fish,

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

The consequence? Fish stocks
are being depleted.

Same thing with chickens,
which we feed with soy.

The more chicken we eat,
the more soy we need.

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

We are destroying whole ecosystems
to produce more food.

And paradoxically,
we don't eat everything we produce.

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

One third.

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

So why am I telling you this?

My brother got married this summer.

I had the honor of being a witness.

On the day of the wedding,

before his friends and family,
and before the mayor,

the marriage certificate was read out,

and the witnesses' names
and professions were given.

Raphael Smia, fly farmer.

Yes, I farm flies.

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

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

OK, I've lost you.

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

or food scraps from a restaurant.

We take all that, we grind it up,
we mix it all up,

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

Our larvae love waste and rotting things.

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

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

they're used as animal feed.

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

No. They eat insects.
Same thing for fish.

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

We grow grain that we feed
to our livestock,

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

Farming insects makes it possible
to recover the nutrients

which remain in this waste

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

We go from a linear model
to a circular economy.

So, who is this superhero of recycling?

Let me introduce to you
the black soldier fly.

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

(Laughter)

(Applause)

So a quick lesson on flies.
A fly lays eggs.

Larvae hatch from these eggs.

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

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

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

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

And this fly is the ideal farm animal.

First of all, it's harmless.

It doesn't sting. It doesn't bite.
It doesn't transmit disease.

The adult fly actually doesn't even eat.

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

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

(Laughter)

And because adult flies don't eat,

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

And also, they exist
naturally in France,

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

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

They can eat and process
all different kinds of waste,

while creating none themselves,

since even their excrement
can be used as fertilizer.

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

The only thing we needed
was to domesticate them.

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

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

in a stable.

In it, we built a climate chamber,

which is a hermetically sealed chamber

in which we can control
temperature, humidity,

and all that, inside.

I can tell you that for someone like me,

who has trouble putting
IKEA furniture together,

this was a pretty big challenge.

We got our first larvae, we fed them,

and we waited impatiently
for the first fly.

And here it is!

The first fly
from the NextAlim laboratory.

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

Especially my grandma,

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

And I get where they're coming from.

I was digging through supermarkets' trash.

I spent my time watching
and waiting impatiently

for flies to mate.

And I was putting larvae
into different situations

to see how they would react.

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

When they've finished eating,

they migrate out of their substrate,
out of their food source.

This has its advantages and disadvantages.

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

That's pretty nice.

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

That's what happened
with our first generation.

We built them bins with ramps
to facilitate their migration.

The ramps were precisely
45° from the ground,

like the literature said.

You can imagine the looks
on our faces the next day,

when we found the lab
littered with larvae.

The larvae had the brilliant idea
of going up the vertical walls

rather than using our ramps.

Well, anyway, the colony
is making progress.

And we even want to optimize our set-up,

like the number of matings, egg clutches.

This involves playing
with different parameters:

light, temperature, and a bit of music.

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

No, seriously,
music really works with flies too!

(Laughter)

We domesticated the flies,
and with that success,

we were able to raise funds

from private partners
and also from public partners,

who supported the project
to the tune of several million euros.

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

to conduct more thorough experiments,

and, most importantly, to determine
the process and to draw up the plans

for the first industrial
insect farming factory.

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

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

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

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

Bio-waste can be found
everywhere in France.

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

to be able to produce local proteins.

But that's not all.

With one ton of bio-waste,

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

That's a full tank of gas.

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

Still, insect farming isn't a panacea

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

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

Even the steps of flies.

(Applause)