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How research can help insect production scale up
11 Plays3 years ago
The Center for Environmental Sustainability through Insect Farming aims to advance insect agriculture with high-quality research.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
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Hello and welcome to the Feed Strategy podcast.
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I'm your host, Anne Roos, Senior Reporter for Feed Strategy.
Introduction to CEAF
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The Center for Environmental Sustainability through Insect Farming, or CEAF, is a consortium composed of three universities, Texas A&M AgriLife, Indiana University, Purdue University, Indianapolis, also known as IUPUI,
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and Mississippi State University.
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The National Science Foundation funded the formation and management of the center, which aims to provide high quality research on insect farming to industry so companies can better expand their production of insect ingredients for animal feed and human food.
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All research funds are provided by industry advisory board members.
CEAF's Mission and Industry Collaboration
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Today I'm speaking with Jeffrey Tomberlin, who is Director of CEF and a Professor AgriLife Research Fellow and Presidential Impact Fellow at Texas A&M.
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Tell me about the NSF CEF and what you do there.
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Sure.
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I think before I tell you about what NSF CEF is, it might help to have a little background on how it came about.
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It's been a journey.
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We've been working on development of the center, this particular center through the National Science Foundation.
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For about four years, it started with a small group meeting in Indianapolis with Christine Picard and Heather Jordan and others.
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That led to a planning grant.
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Took a year to get the planning grant from NSF.
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We had the planning meeting.
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Then a year later, we submitted a full proposal.
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And a year after that, we finally got the grant.
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So it was a journey because we had to bring companies in from all over the world because the purpose of this particular center
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is to bridge academia with industry.
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We want to provide quick results to help the industry evolve, diversify, and navigate hurdles it may encounter along the way.
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And fortunately, the National Science Foundation found this topic interesting and they wanted to support it.
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because of its value, not just to the United States, but the remainder of the globe.
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So what we do is we engage industry, we find out where their challenges are, we develop research within the center that we can then do with our different sites, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, and IUPUI.
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We get those results back to the industry.
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So it's quick turnaround results, low investment on their part, high return.
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SEAF has three areas of research.
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Can you explain what those are?
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Sure, so each site has a particular emphasis.
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So Texas A&M, where I'm located, is emphasizing optimization of growth and production, as well as feed trials.
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So we work with feed trials in aquaculture, poultry, et cetera.
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IUPUI with Christine Picard is focused on genetics and genomics.
Research Focus and Industry Impact
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And Mississippi State with Heather Jordan is focused on microbiology quality assurance issues.
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What kind of work are you doing specifically around using insects and animal feed?
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Sure.
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So I can't go into specifics about the products that we're currently running because the information is confidential.
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It's only for the industry advisory board.
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So the companies that are part of the center have access to those data.
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But I can give you an idea of the type of projects that we can do.
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We obviously can do any type of aquaculture project that ranges from freshwater to cold water to saltwater fish.
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We can do poultry work and look at growth and development.
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And across these species, we can look at immunological responses, sensory perception.
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Does it affect the taste or the quality of the animals that are being produced?
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And I imagine that eventually with the vet school here at Texas A&M, we'll diversify and go into pet food.
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On the feed side, what's really fascinating is that there are companies that can digest 100 tons of food waste a day, every day with an insect.
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And this insect is an inch long, but there's so many of them, they can actually build these bioreactors to digest 100 tons of food waste a day.
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to create products of value.
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That keeps this material out of the landfill.
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So if you consider like food production in the world, it's hard to believe we live in an environment where like, hey, we need to produce more food because our global population is growing.
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But we waste like 40% of the food we produce.
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This industry does a couple things.
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One is it tightens up our economy and creates a more cyclic system where there's no waste or limited waste.
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And it diversifies the industry because this industry, while I say there are companies that can digest 100 tons of waste a day, anybody can do it.
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So we really like to spend a lot of time teaching people how to produce this insect.
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It's almost like the victory gardens of World War II, where everybody had their little garden in the back and was producing fruits and vegetables for the community.
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The same thing can be done with these insects like the black soldier fly one that I specialize on.
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Anybody can do it.
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And that's the thing I like about it, because we can take this in to developing nations and you don't have to have robots to do it so we can help bolster economies in places that need it.
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And by bolstering these economies and creating jobs for saving lives, for creating
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nutritive valued byproducts that can be used to grow livestock that then can be food.
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It protects the environment.
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There's so many benefits that come from this.
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How can SEAF help get black soldier fly production on the scale that is needed for the animal feed industry?
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Sure, so a lot of these companies, they range in size from startup to global entities, such as like Tyson Food Group or Mars Corporation.
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And while they all have, these large companies have research arms, they don't have experts in entomology.
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So that's really challenging.
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The smaller companies obviously don't have as much to invest in research arms.
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So what we can do is we can tap into that expertise.
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We bring the experts in to answer these questions.
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And that allows us to address those questions and get data to them so they can navigate this process of development and growth.
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And what I mean is, if we can develop methods that increase their production or optimize their processes 10%, 15%, that's a massive impact.
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Also, if we can help them develop the data that are necessary for regulatory approval, that's even a bigger boon.
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So we are like quick return.
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These projects happen within a year to two years.
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So we're generating data constantly.
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And one thing I'd like to point out is just to give you an idea of how this benefits companies.
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If you look at the center right now, the National Science Foundation is investing about a half a million dollars a year in the center.
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And that's for the infrastructure side.
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The industry partners invest $25,000 or $50,000 a year per company.
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So right now we're talking close to a million dollars of research every year and every company gets access to all of the data.
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So if you invest $25,000, you're getting a return of a million dollars.
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So it's huge returns.
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So again, how does industry benefit?
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It's quick data turnaround for questions they are dealing with now, today, in the present.
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Do you think
Cultural Acceptance and Product Development
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insects will ever become widely accepted as food for humans?
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You know, that's an interesting question.
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I'm going to be a little cheeky with the response, but the first part is it's already accepted.
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If you think about the global population, a large portion of the global population already consumes insects.
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What we're talking about really is the Western world, getting the West to adapt or open, be receptive
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of the idea of insects as a food ingredient.
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So it's not the idea of a cricket sitting on your hamburger, it's how do you take the protein out of the cricket and create an ingredient that can be then formulated and used in other food products.
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That's what we're talking about doing on the food side.
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On the feed side, I think we're there.
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It's now just growing the industry to meet the demand.
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What are some of those ingredients or food products that can be used for human food?
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I mean, the big one is the protein that's associated with the insects.
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So the protein could be extracted and then formulated.
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And you'll see a variety of different things that are being produced today for human consumption, ranging from potato chips to ice cream.
Personal Journey into Entomology
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What is it about insects that draws you to this work?
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Well, I'm an entomologist, so that helps, right?
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But I think for me, people ask me all the time, how did I get involved in this industry?
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And I tell people that it wasn't one single event that
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led me to it.
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It was a sequence of experiences that I've had through my life.
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But I have to recognize my grandmother, my granny.
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She lived to be 98.
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She lived about 100 yards behind my house where I grew up and I spent every day with her.
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I would come home from school, go in the front door, out the back, and go straight to her house.
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And just her way of living taught me the importance of sustainability, community, and protecting the environment.
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And she didn't talk in science terms.
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I mean, she had a third grade education.
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She talked through her actions.
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And what I mean by that is as I got older and I learned more about her,
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And the way she grew up and the way she was committed to her family, it inspired me.
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And I think that's what led me to this area in the beginning.
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Real quick story about my granny, because I'll give you an idea of the type of woman she was.
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She'd get up at four in the morning, milked the cow, come home, cooked breakfast.
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Go pick cotton, come home, cook lunch, go pick cotton, come home, cook dinner.
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I never heard the woman complain a day in her life.
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She gave me this present that hangs in my house to this day in a shadow box.
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And it's a thimble that's used for sewing.
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And she used it so much, she broke it.
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There's a hole in it.
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And when I was getting married, I held that thimble up and I said, I aspire to be this committed.
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And she laughed and I said, Granny, why are you laughing?
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She said, oh, I have a whole jar of those.
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And to me,
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That lifestyle is what led me in part to be committed to this industry of circular economy, protecting the environment, creating jobs, community.
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So that was a long-winded answer.
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I'm sorry about that, but it's part of who I am.
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It's part of my DNA.
Collaborations and Community Engagement
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No, that's a great story.
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I'm glad I asked the question.
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So you mentioned Tyson and Mars.
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What are some of the other companies that you work with?
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Sure.
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So Tyson and Mars are some of the big companies that do a lot of different things, and this is an area of interest that they have.
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So we also work with Ragnacels, that's a waste management company out of Europe.
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We work with Novafeed, we work with Interra, we work with Prezero.
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These are all insect-based companies throughout the Western Hemisphere, so mostly in North America and Europe.
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We do have colleagues that are also in Asia.
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And we're expanding it every year.
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We're trying to add more companies because the more companies we have, the more work we can do and the more we can advance the industry.
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And I just want to point out, it's not just about doing research.
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It's also training the next generation of researchers and workers or employees for these companies because that's a big hurdle.
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It's having people that understand the sector and can work in it.
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So we are working to do that.
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to create that next generation.
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Something else just so that you're aware is it's more than just also research or training.
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We also look at community engagement.
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We received a supplemental grant from the National Science Foundation where we're working with the Texas A&M Aggie Achieve Program and with the Mississippi State Access Program.
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And the purpose of these programs is to introduce science to marginalized communities.
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So we work with individuals that normally wouldn't get a chance to work in science.
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So the center is much more than just doing research.
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It really is about also educating the public and engaging individuals on the sector, which gets back to your other question about what do we need to do to help people open their minds for accepting this idea.
Closing and Contact Information
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If you work with a company or organization that would like to partner with SEAF, you can contact Jeff Tomberlin on Twitter at atFly's Facility, reach out on LinkedIn, or email him at jeffrey.tomberlin at ag.tamu.edu.
00:12:32
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That's j-e-f-f-e-r-y dot t-o-m-b-e-r-l-i-n at ag.tamu.edu.
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Learn more about the Center for Environmental Sustainability through insect farming at insectcenter.org.
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A big thanks to Jeff Tomberlin for speaking with me, and as always, thank you to the audience for listening.
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I'm Anne Roos for Feed Strategy.