Agritech startups producing lab-grown food

DW (English)

New business ideas from agritech startups: Greenhub presents a digital gardener for vertical indoor farming, while Esencia Foods has developed a meat substitute based on mushroom mycelium.

Transcript

00:01Turning over a new leaf.

00:03Leipzig-based start-up Greenhub has been developing a digital gardener

00:07with software that monitors and optimizes the plant's growth.

00:11The big idea behind Greenhub is to make fresh food accessible to everyone the world over.

00:18In Berlin, another start-up, Essentia Foods, is developing a new meat substitute.

00:23It forms when the roots of the mushrooms, the mycelium, grow and digest.

00:28We're saying there needs to be an alternative for everyone.

00:33It needs to be accessible for families, but also at some point in non-Western countries with lower incomes.

00:41The other co-founder of Essentia Foods is Bruno Skokotze from Argentina.

00:46He has a PhD in biophysics, but is, above all, a chef.

00:51He's aiming to create a better meat substitute with mushrooms,

00:54as he's not impressed with the existing vegan alternatives.

00:59The problem with many of the plant-based alternatives that exist right now

01:03is that they start from protein powders that are not tasty on themselves.

01:06There needs to be a lot of covering of all these bad flavors with other flavors like spices,

01:11but in our case we don't start with anything we need to cover.

01:14The meat-like flavor comes from the digestion process of the mushrooms.

01:20The team at Essentia Foods feeds them legumes.

01:23The roots penetrate and grow quickly.

01:26And within just a few days, the meat substitute is ready, at a relatively low cost.

01:32It's cheaper than meat.

01:38This is actually the first time a vegan alternative has been less expensive than meat.

01:43That's down to our approach.

01:45We're replacing mechanical processing with biology and harnessing natural processes.

01:52Clara Casal-Georgiou is the company's food scientist.

01:57She's developing new products, like this vegan donna kebab.

02:01With just a pinch of seasoning, it's ready to go.

02:04It's actually very versatile.

02:08It can be used in many different types of products.

02:11So it's adaptable to sausages, but also other more minimally processed products,

02:17like minced meat, kebab strips, like you see here, and also chicken chunks, for example.

02:24For Leipzig-based start-up Green Hub, climate change is also a driving force.

02:30Drought and heavy rain don't affect vegetables grown indoors.

02:35But to help the plants thrive, the Green Hub team builds software that looks after them.

02:42The software basically acts like a gardener.

02:48It monitors the plant's health, starting with water parameters like nutrient levels.

02:54And then it moves on to assessing the plant's overall condition.

03:01But the software still lacks the experience of a seasoned gardener.

03:06To enable artificial intelligence to take over, Green Hub collects data on what the plants need for optimal growth.

03:13The right levels of light, nutrients and humidity.

03:17In effect, they're trying to replicate a biological system.

03:21These are very complex processes, and sometimes they bring unexpected surprises.

03:28The plant might get fungal infections or other diseases.

03:32And we don't always have the best solutions to prevent them yet.

03:37One major problem for indoor farms is the high level of electricity consumption.

03:42Right now, they're only profitable in regions with cheap energy.

03:46Scandinavia, the Middle East and Spain are promising markets.

03:50Germany, not so much.

03:53Currently, our production costs are up to ten times higher, which is way too much.

03:59Germany is a very price-sensitive market.

04:02If a head of salad costs 3 euros 50, or even more, instead of 79 cents, because of production costs, it's not going to sell.

04:12Still, two major German research institutions are interested in Green Hub's software.

04:18They want to use it to simulate how climate change affects plants.

04:23And Essentia Foods is getting lots of interest in its meat substitute.

04:27A German supermarket chain is already on board.

04:31Now, the company is figuring out how to scale up industrial production.

04:37It was quite stunning.

04:40USAud in China

04:41is statistically expensive.

04:46Zhou Mf.

04:58In China, the Industry, is a huge peak.

05:01Not quite than anything.

05:03You have advertised these products in China.

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