Aleph Farms’ leadership team. From left to right: Technion Professor Shulamit Levenberg, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Adviser; Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Neta Lavon, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of R&D. (Credit: Rami Shalosh)
Aleph Farms, an Israeli meat alternative company, may soon be offering its products in Europe. The company, which boasts Leonardo DiCaprio among its investors, may soon be the first company to sell cultivated beef steaks in Europe. The company submitted an application for regulatory approval for its lab-made steak to the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO).
Startup Nation is no stranger to the development of eco-friendly vegetarian foods. Its local companies like Tivall have offered local consumers such products for decades. But these are plant-based alternatives usually made with soy products. And Israel is ripe with startups making alternative food products to replace meat, fish and dairy. This is not only good for vegetarians, but it is also good for the environment because farmed meat, poultry and fish use up tremendous resources and leave behind waste that harms the environment.
Anyone who has read books like “Fast Food Nation,” or who has seen the documentary “Supersize Me” (and if you haven’t you should) knows how much the animal-based food industry – meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, etc. – whether it is for fast foods, junk foods, home cooking or even additives to so many store bought processed foods from cakes to ice cream, harms the environment.
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Numerous amounts of energy go to the industry every year, along with a tremendous amount of animal waste that needs to be dealt with. Much of the waste ends up polluting the local environment, including drinking water. And cows give off a great deal of methane (use your imagination here) gas that goes into the atmosphere and adds to the problem of climate change. Also, such animals were supposed to roam free, with their droppings getting stomped into the ground becoming a fertilizer, thereby playing their part in the ecosystem. But this is no longer the case and has not been for a long time.
So, one need not be a vegetarian to want to see quality and affordable animal-based food product alternatives proliferate. And the world does not need to do away with animal-based foods entirely to solve the environmental problems, just cut back on most of them.
Founded in 2017 and based in Rehovot, Israel, Aleph Farms cultivates steaks directly from the cells of a living animal. It has a platform for the cultivation of whole beef steaks.
Aleph Farms boasts that its cell-grown meat is close to conventional meat thanks to a proprietary 3D platform that uses various types of cells to form complex tissue, ensuring an end product that resembles the taste, texture, and structure of farmed meat.
“Food systems affect everyone, and it will take a coordinated effort between regulators, innovators and incumbents to ensure food security in a way that helps humanity live within its planetary boundaries,” said Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia. “Together with Migros, we are establishing the cow cell as the third category of food products from cattle, alongside beef and milk.”
“At Aleph Farms, we carefully consider partnerships that reflect our core values and sustainability commitments. Together with Migros, we are establishing the cow cell as the third category of food products from cattle, alongside beef and milk. We look forward to working closely with Switzerland’s Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office to enable access to both high-quality nutrition and world-changing innovation.”
