In a small room in Tel Mond is a pool with carefully controlled water that can feed the world at almost no cost.
This is done thanks to spirulina, a protein rich algae which grows in the water thanks to sunlight.
The water is then moved via pipes to drums, the green edible material is removed from it, and the clean water goes back to the pool to produce more algae.
While not exactly creatio ex nihilo, it is as close to it as humanly possible. Which is why Simpliigood CEO Lior Shalev believes the algae could revolutionize the food market.
Most consumers imagine spirulina as a food supplement, a super-food if you will, something which is said to be healthy and can be added to protein shakes or sprinkled on yogurt to enhance its nutritional value.
The term super-food is a great marketing trick but has no real meaning, everything edible has nutritional value. Fresh spirulina happens to contain up to 74% protein as well as amino acids and antioxidants. Rather than use this food to dye shakes green Shalev is working on using it to form large chunks of plant-based protein for steaks and burgers.
Should the green color prove too upsetting for some, the color can be changed.
He offers me a small plate of freshly harvested algae, it is warm and chewy. I try not to think of the name the Aztec gave it in Nahuatl, Tecuitlati, which means rock excrement. The Aztec were not the only people to eat it, around lake Chad people harvest the algae today. The Kanembu women for example, use it to make Dihé.
Unlike wild algae, which is only as protein rich or plentiful or safe to eat as the current conditions in the body of water it comes from, Simpliigood creates highly controlled and regulated foodstuff. In theory, if such farms are built on Mars they could serve to feed the human colonies there. If they are built in food deprived countries, they could feed people cheaply.
“We grow it, we manufacture the products, we pack it, and we ship it,” Shalev tells the Jerusalem Post, “nobody else ever did that with fresh spirulina.”
“I see spirulina as a good candidate to replace animal-based protein such as meat or milk,” he adds. Both meat and dairy industries cause animal suffering, require water and many other resources. Perhaps most apparent after a year of COVID-19 pandemic – there can be no doubt that diseases can and do spread from animals to humans bent on eating their flesh.
“We domesticated pigs and got whooping cough,” wrote Michael Greger in the 2015 book, How not to Die, “we domesticated chickens and got typhoid fever.” Tuberculosis, measles, smallpox, leprosy and even the common cold reached humanity due to its dominion over animals – Greger argues.
From a practical point of view, no heifer can double its bio-mass in a day and a half of grazing, Shalev told the Post , like an algae pool does.
“I can use sunlight to produce as much protein as the industry needs and they can use it for anything they care to make,” he points out. Seeing as the algae itself has a neutral taste it can be used for Popsicles, chips, a meatloaf.
“People are seeking medicinal values in what they eat,” Shalev argues, “and here we eat the whole plant, it is not like a walnut you need to crack open and throw away the shell. It is much less wasteful.”
To change sunlight into food you need “an algae whisperer” a scientist who can imagine what steps should be taken in the state-of-the-art lab to ensure maximum yield. Shalev has such a person, he is Head of Research and Development Lior Shauder.
“The algae is alive so it grows all the time until it is frozen,” Shauder tells me, “from this lab we can control every aspect of how it grows.” For example, the pool surface and the water are kept sterile so that only the algae grow there. In theory, one could “feed” the algae useful things for humans to absorb as they eat it. “We are now able to both supply any demand we get as well as control things long-distance,” Shauder explains.
“We are only now starting to understand what Phycocyanin can do,” Shalev told the Report. The word means algae [phyco] cyan [greenish-blue] and is now used to describe a pigment-protein found in blue algae.
“We can, for example, extract it from algae and add it to other things.”
Phycocyanin is also getting increased attention in cosmetics, as it is reportedly useful to improve skin health.
Simpliigood (the brand name used by Algaeore Technologies LTD) currently ships fresh spirulina across the country as well as its own line of crackers and Popsicles. You can learn more about it here: https://simpliigood.com/