In Food Tech, You Need To Make Environmentally Friendly Food Using Technology And Innovation, Affirms Ofir Lazarov, Co-Founder, Foodtech Academy reichman University

Q: What really caught your attention when it comes to food technology?

A: I have studied computer science and was really attracted to technology and innovation. In food tech, you need to make environmentally friendly food using technology and innovation and this appealed to me. Also, I really like to cook and bake and experimented a lot with food. You want to change how people consume their food and for me, this is important.

Q: When we look at food tech, on the entrepreneurial or education side, how do you help your fellow entrepreneurs to go forward, learn the best practices, and then start off?

A: In the last year and a half, I established an enrichment program in the field of entrepreneurship on Foodtech with a university for the students on campus every semester, which is to accept about 35 students who show passion and interest in this field of food tech. We meet them every week for lectures and tools in this field. 

The program is divided into two parts. In the first part, there are lectures with the students to learn about Foodtech. And then in the second part, students are divided into groups to establish a venture. Each group is accompanied by a mentor from the industry and must attend lectures about building a business model and presenting a sellable idea to an audience. And in the final meeting, the students present the ventures in front of an impressive team of judges from venture capital funds in the field of food tech. 

A part of our goal is also to expose the field of Foodtech, to students in other universities, and to be the connection between academia, institutions, and the ecosystem in Israel for which we had also organized several conferences this year. And that was a really big success with a lot of participants. These days, we are working on expanding the program to the need of the industry abroad for which we are working on finding students who want to establish branches of our program in their universities.

Q: A lot of young female entrepreneurs do face more challenges, or is it all equal? Is your area gender neutral, or, have you particularly faced a major challenge as an entrepreneur?

A: I feel that men and women are treated equally in my country, at least that has been my experience until now. In the future, there could be different challenges. In the beginning, when I wanted to establish the program, for about six months, everyone at the University told me, “No, we don't need this kind of program. No one cares about Foodtech.” The uniqueness of our program is that we welcome people from all degrees, be it communication, computer science, law. The range is wide. Later, I connected to the three other founders from different backgrounds, and we established the program together.

Q: As sustainable food, technology can be deployed at key points along the food cycle, and it has the potential to promote a world with less hunger, better employment, of course, and responsible cycles of production, how do your students and organization help to embody these principles through your program?

A: In the program, we teach students about the entire food and supply chain from the production process to the moment it reaches the final consumer. We maintain our teachings to match the process in a logical order, starting with exposure to the field of food tech, then continuing to learn about the traditional food industry and its problems, and finally the transition to technological solutions for alternative protein production. 

We focus on three different methods of producing alternative protein such as meat, chicken. The main methods are plant-based food and there is a fermentation production method and cell culture method. The participating students, who come to the program with a wide variety of degrees, we make sure to touch on a lot of different topics so that everyone can relate to something. 

In the program we try to show them the challenges and opportunities in every step of the way of the food cycle that our students may have skills for - for students studying government, we brought a lecture on regulation, students studying computer science a lecture on AI, etc.

Q: As you are taking them forward literally from end to end, you're ensuring that they meet approximately all the challenges even before they've started out with their own programs as such, but how does your entire company operations involve carbon neutrality initiatives and sustainability initiatives within the operational center?

A: I believe that change starts from small actions, so it starts with small changes every day that each person adjusts to their daily routine.

At our events and meetings, we make sure to use reusable tools, but this is not the main thing that creates the existing problems in the world. In addition to that, it is important for me also to look at my plate in my day-to-day life, which is why I reduce meat from my life, I am not a vegetarian or a vegan, but since I was exposed to the issue, it bothers me more and more and I decided to reduce meat. Making a personal change in your way of life contributes not only to the human body (in terms of health) but affects the world more broadly and now as there are more good substitutes and even better products on the way to us it makes me want to be a part of it not only in terms of the entrepreneur but also on the personal side.

Q: Since the world is going digital, thanks to the COVID pandemic, as a student, what do you feel would be the one positive change in higher education that could be implemented in such a way that it raises the Global Education standard?

A:  I think the program I established is an example of an amazing change that can happen in the higher education system. The uniqueness of the university where I studied is that student initiatives are strongly encouraged, like the program I founded, there are additional enrichment programs in a variety of fields. Students should be allowed to develop projects in which they apply tools they have learned in real life because this gives them many tools that enrich them as human beings. That's why I can say that I really push for student initiatives and projects to be something that is part of the study process, to encourage the student to be creative and go beyond what they are doing and that the students should learn how to link each field that someone is studying to some need or challenge in the real world.

In fact, no one is born an entrepreneur - and really I think that most entrepreneurs first ventures are usually unsuccessful because it takes time to learn it, and you have to experiment and fail a lot along the way. That's why this process is so important, to give the student exposure to the world of entrepreneurship, to give them tools, a framework, and support of Mentoring, things that are very difficult to achieve after they finish university.

Q: Tell us a little bit about any three food technology initiatives that have inspired you in Israel or globally.

A: The companies I chose that have the most impact on carbon neutrality and increasing sustainability in food production are companies from the alternative protein field that deal with protein substitutes in foods such as meat, milk, eggs, and fish. Those industries are the most polluting and really require a technological solution that will help deal with the sustainability challenges the world is facing.

There are companies in the field of FoodTech that strive to remove the animals from the equation and want to prepare the same food in a more sustainable way thanks to the technologies that we are now discovering.

The use of animals as a means of food production is neither sustainable nor efficient and produces negative effects, in fact, the raising of animals requires large amounts of food that goes to waste. Huge amounts of high-protein food are required to feed these animals instead of feeding humans, and this produces greater pollution.

3 such companies are Aleph Farms, Remilk, and Plentish, companies some of which I even visited. Each company attacks a different side of the challenges that livestock poses to us.

In the last few months, Remilk raised 125 million dollars to build a factory where they can produce the same amount of milk as 50 thousand cows. Each of the cows eats a huge amount of food, and in the future, we will not have this area because the population is growing. That's why their technology saves pollution, land, and huge amounts of water and food that need to be fed to the cows. In addition, if you look at the health aspect, moving to factories instead of using livestock saves us a lot of use of antibiotics, that today 80 percent of the total antibiotics consumed in the world goes to treat animals. Reduced use of livestock for eating purposes helps minimize the use of antibiotics The red meat industry is the most polluting of the entire food industry in terms of greenhouse gas emissions (60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from all food production is from red meat only) and therefore it is the industry that is most important to develop technologically in it. A great example of a company in this industry is Aleph Farms. The company produces steaks of cultured meat directly from the animal cells without genetic engineering in the lab and is based on research of skin tissues from the Technion University, and in its last round it raised 105 million dollars.

Today, the company is in advanced stages of development and towards the launch of its first meat, minut steak, in the coming year.

In addition, the fishing industry is also very polluting. Industrial fishing leaves behind a lot of dirt in the sea such as plastics, and nets and therefore greatly pollutes the oceans and even destroys the life system of the animals that live there. The most common fishing method is trawling, which basically takes a net and drags everything that is on the bottom. In this method, they destroy the entire life system that is on the ground. In addition, there is a certain limit of fish that can be fished from the sea. An Israeli company called PLANTISH found a solution to this problem by 3D printing plant-based salmon pieces and they also recently raised 12 million dollars.

Q: Tell us a little bit about your journey as a student entrepreneur, as well as a book that you would recommend to all the young entrepreneurs out there.

A: I discovered my entrepreneurial side at a really young age. When I was 14, I started to organize summer camps in my yard for the neighbourhood kids and even employed friends and instructors. Later, after my military service, about five years ago, I started making jewellery as a hobby. When I realized that the demand for my jewellery from friends was increasing, I started an Instagram page and began selling my pieces through it, which eventually turned into a huge business. I finally stopped because I was travelling for a long time.

A year and a half ago, I came up with the idea of opening a program in the field of food tech. I'm proud of myself because I didn't stop even though at times I didn't succeed. It is a huge success during the year. And I'm glad that I stayed and didn't give up on it. 

A book that I would recommend is ‘Predictably Irrational’ by Dan Ariely. The book teaches the essence of entrepreneurship, which is correct and rational decision-making.