- mary lou costa
- business reporter
Felix Collins' job is probably not for people who don't like insects.
The founder and boss of a company called Full Circle Biotechnology, he controls 20 million black soldier fly larvae.
The company, based in a small indoor facility on the outskirts of Bangkok, raises insects to produce feed for domestic shrimp and pig farms.
Living in dark, warm, humid environments, the larvae feed on fruit and vegetable waste supplied by food and drink manufacturers before being harvested and mixed with probiotic bacteria and mushrooms.
Collins says the product is a more environmentally friendly alternative to the soy-based animal feed that dominates the market. The latter has been repeatedly linked to deforestation in South America.
He also claims that the carbon footprint of his insect-based feed is “100 times lower than soybean meal.”
Studies agree that insect-based feeds generally have a lower carbon footprint, but only if the larvae are fed natural food waste. There are also reports that soy-based feeds produce less carbon when insects are fed processed foods.
Collins says the feed produced by Full Circle contains up to 70% protein, compared to less than 50% protein in soybeans, and the insect feed is more satiating. He added that it is highly nutritious.
Founded in 2019, Full Circle currently employs 14 people and supplies products to 49 farms across Thailand. The company wants to increase this, but faces the hurdle that soy-based feed is currently significantly cheaper.
To lower feed prices, Full Circle is now turning to AI to maximize production at lower costs. To do this, we train an AI system to examine all available historical and current data on insect farming to determine the best methods and continually fine-tune them.
This includes everything from temperature to the amount of food, the optimal space the larvae need, counting thousands of flies quickly and accurately, and whether to introduce new stocks or species. Masu.
“AI can help speed up the trial-and-error process, overcome obstacles, and understand insect production so well that we can be reasonably confident that production is optimized,” Collins said. says Mr.
“AI can help us process, record and understand every insect farming endeavor we’ve ever done, opening up the potential for bigger, more nutritious crops with every crop we grow.”
About 5,000 miles away in Lithuania, insect farming software provider Cogastro is also working on an AI-based system. The company currently sells monitoring software that automatically collects data that users can analyze, but the AI upgrade will allow the system to learn, adapt and change on its own within the insect farm.
Kogastro said it is not in a hurry to launch AI and plans to launch it commercially within the next three years.
Its founder and chief executive Mante Sidrauskaite said he was wary of companies in this space claiming they already had AI systems ready for use. “We know from our example that it takes time to develop layers of software, but we have already seen him here for five years.
“We took the time to work with as many companies as possible around the world and understand the differences and similarities in their processes so that we could standardize our data models to address their overlapping needs. So we currently have the following baseline to build our AI solution.
“But when you see startups that were founded just yesterday and are announcing that they're developing something related to AI, they don't have an accurate AI model in place before they start training. , you need some data to train, and to get that data you first need to get some customers.”
She added that she is concerned that AI is being used too much as a buzzword without companies explaining exactly how their AI works.
Back at Full Circle, the company is working with Singapore-based expert in the field Simon Christofides to develop the AI system.
Collins said there is still much to learn as black soldier fly larvae have only been commercially farmed for the past decade and a half, and the use of AI could rapidly speed up this process.
“Rice farmers are still striving to create the perfect crop after 13,500 years of learning passed down through generations,” he says. “Black soldier fly larvae are cultured for 0.1% of rice cultivation time, which is reflected in our current understanding.”
Collins added that the company's strategy is to use AI to glean insights “that humans could never achieve” by using multiple sensors and processing millions of data points.
Still, he added, sometimes you need to leave the flies alone and let things take their own course. For example, the reproductive process in which adult flies mate on territorially arranged green ribbons.
“You have to consider their social and behavioral dynamics as animals,” Collins says.