Black soldier flies look to revolutionize the livestock feed industry

[0:00] Welcome back. As the world's population grows, companies around the world continue to look for [0:05] ways to produce more food faster and sustainably. Enter the French company InnovaFeed, doing just [0:11] that with, of all things, the black soldier fly, a protein-rich super insect, if you will, [0:16] that can convert waste into feed for livestock. In honor of Earth Month, our Maggie Rooley visited [0:21] the world's largest bug farm, home to 10 billion larvae, to find out how. [0:26] Just outside the baguette and croissant-filled streets of Paris, a very different kind of [0:38] delicacy is being cooked up. Welcome to the world's largest farm. Yes, that's right. We're [0:46] talking about bugs as food. All right, this place might look like I'm in the middle of a creepy sci-fi [0:52] movie, but actually, this place is trying to revolutionize the way we feed livestock, and [0:58] they're doing it all with this simple fly. What got you first interested in this space [1:05] of a bug farm? We got interested in the fact that with the growing population, we need not only to [1:12] produce more food, but to produce it more sustainably. That's when Ode Guo, the co-founder of French [1:18] company InnovaFeed and her team, discovered the black soldier fly with similar amounts of protein [1:24] as beef. This super insect can also convert waste into feed for livestock. And in doing so, [1:31] they're disrupting the food industry, which Ode says accounts for almost 30 percent of the world's [1:37] total CO2 emissions. She told us half the crops we produce and a third of the fish we catch every year [1:43] are fed to the animals that we then eat. That's why Ode wants to feed these animals insects instead, [1:50] potentially slashing energy emissions and costs. I was ready to suit up and see the flies for myself. [1:58] All right, now it's time to go see these bugs. Jeremy Ruffman is head of operations. He calls the 10 [2:06] billion flies they grow here his babies. We've been smelling insects the whole time, [2:11] Yeah. But now the new smell is larvae growth. Yeah, it's a larvae growth, yeah. It's potent. [2:18] Our first stop was to see where the flies are born. All right, so right now we're heading to the eggs. [2:23] It's almost, you'd say like the hatchery of this whole process. Exactly. The black soldier fly lives [2:29] to reproduce. It grows to 5,000 times its body weight in just under two weeks. A fish would take 18 [2:36] months to do the same. That means more food faster. Everything starts here with the babies. You can [2:44] see it moves. That are. No, are they moving right now? Yeah, it's the neonates. What? Oh, that's a trip. [2:50] That's a trip to look at. These baby flies eat byproducts from a nearby wheat factory. As they fatten, [2:56] they mature into teens. So in just eight days, those tiny, tiny flies have become teenagers. [3:03] Here they are. And after just another eight days, they're adults. Oh, they're a lot more active now. [3:09] You can feel them in your hand. Oh, it's a very weird tickling sensation. Ooh. It really reminds [3:17] you that they're bugs when you hold them. When those adult larvae die, their bodies are separated [3:22] into solids and fats. The solids are ground into a protein used in fish meal. The fats become an oil [3:28] used in feed for chickens and pigs. The bug feces are also collected and used as a fertilizer on the [3:33] same wheat field that produces the bug's feed. It's a circular waste-free system. I think the benefit [3:40] of insect production versus traditional livestock is speed, space, efficiency. And we're talking about [3:48] taking things of no value and creating value. Dr. Jeffrey Toberlin has been studying the black [3:52] soldier fly for decades. He says using insects as feed is poised to become a multi-billion dollar [3:59] industry. Are black soldier flies safe to eat? If they follow the regulations that are currently in [4:06] place, yes. Inova feed also grows some of their larvae to full term. Those flies reproduce and make [4:12] the next generation of bugs. So come in fast with us. The moment of truth had arrived. I was going in. [4:19] I don't know. Am I ready? Let's do it. I'm ready. I'm ready. Come, come, come, come, come. We are [4:24] standing in a room full of flies. The flies are on our camera lens right now. It might seem bizarre, [4:30] but really what's in this room right now could be life changing. So much, in fact, that there's so much [4:36] top secret IP in this industry. We can't show half of what's in this room on camera. For our final stop, [4:43] we go up and up and up to the heart of the operation. Right now we're kind of at the farm. [4:50] Is that right? So where the the flying meat, the larvae are being fattened up before eventually [4:55] they become those end products. Exactly. Well, at the end of the process, [5:00] the larvae will be transformed into directly into oil and proteins. But what's different about this [5:05] farm is the insects are stacked on top of each other. Studies show insect farms can use 10 percent of [5:12] the land and produce one percent of the emissions compared to livestock farms. Standing here, [5:17] you really feel what a vertical farm is. There's 10 stories of flies being grown on top of each other. [5:23] So it makes a lot of savings in terms of fields, in terms of energy. So it's a game-changing option now. [5:31] But InovaFeed wants to do more than feed livestock. Hello. [5:36] Clements and Charlotte started giving their dogs pet food made from InovaFeed flies a few months ago. [5:41] Sit. Sit. Paw. Nice to meet you, Tigger. Good job. [5:48] They both work at the company and say a big reason they switched was the environmental benefits [5:52] insects offer over traditional pet food ingredients like palm, soy and livestock. [5:57] In the U.S. alone, 20 percent of farmed land animals are used to feed our pets. [6:02] And what do you guys think of the dog food? [6:08] Does adding insects to animal feed or pet food, does it make those products cheaper? [6:12] The cost of production is still relatively high. And a major goal of the industry today is how to [6:17] drive costs down so it is competitive with other ingredients. We can only use certain things to [6:22] grow the black solar fly. But as we learn more through research, government investment, we find [6:27] out how we can relax those regulations and include different feed stocks, we can grow more. [6:31] That's what InovaFeed has been experimenting with, too. Oda and her team built an R&D facility in Illinois to [6:37] test weather. Like the wheat fields in France, the corn fields of America can feed and be fertilized [6:43] by the flies. Does it look like you'll be able to do this with corn in America? Yes, indeed. We'll be [6:49] able to use this with corn. This is the magic of the black soldier fly. You can feed it basically with [6:55] anything. I think we're about to have a, not to have a renaissance, but a diversification where the [7:00] industry is going to be so much more than just feed. This little fly has infinite potential. And who knows, [7:07] the nutrient rich insect may just be our next superfood as well.