Antoine Hubert says that by 2050 the world will have 10 billion people, and there won’t be enough food for all of us. As global citizens move out of poverty they move toward animal proteins instead of vegan proteins. More meat requires more animals, and more animals will require more feed. Soy meal and fish meal are the major protein feeds for animals, and production is concentrated mainly in North and South America. One slide in Hubert’s presentation shows that by 2030 we might be at a 60 million ton deficit between protein requirements and protein production. Compounding this problem, Hubert says the price of fishmeal has grown three times larger in the last ten years. Hubert’s Solve for X talk ‘Using the Extraordinary Biodiversity of Insects to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion’ outlines the challenges he sees in the current food landscape and some possible solutions.
Insects are not currently marketed and sold as protein for a few reasons. The first reason is regulation, in Europe only plant based feed can be used for most food animals. The other reason is technology, because insect farming exists but not at a large efficient scale.
Hubert’s solution is Ynsect, a protein concentrate. Ynsect uses insects as the protein source, and Antoine points to the great biodiversity of the insect world as a strength. Insects can put any biomass waste to good use – our discarded food, wood waste from lumber operations, slaughterhouse waste, or household waste. We already know how to do insect farming. Bees are put to work producing honey and worms are spinning silk. Insects are already part of the diet of many animals that are eaten by humans.
Ynsect is creating biorefineries that work on a four point plan. Insects are used first for Valorization, to feed off of agricultural waste, old food or organic waste. Next sustainable farming techniques are used to grow the insect populations. The Bioconversion process has two parts, the first is the reproduction phase where mating takes place and eggs are laid. Next is the production unit where eggs turn into larvae and the larvae are fed until harvesting.
The third step in the factory is Processing where the insects are broken down into their proteins, lipids and chitin. Finally the different components are turned Products. Proteins go into products for animal nutrition markets, lipids can go into animal feed, and chitins are turned into cosmetics or pharmaceutical ingredients.
Ynsect is a huge undertaking and the factory that started construction in September 2015 will be fully automated and the first industrial model for the company. In December 2015 the team secured €2,000,000 from ADEME, the French environmental agency, and was named a Top 100 Company by the Global Cleantech group. It’s great to see new innovative solutions to the world’s growing problem with food security. Even though I can’t imagine eating protein that comes from insect byproducts, I look forward to the opportunity.