Panic has been felt around the world since the announcement of the world’s first commercial octopus farm in the Canary Islands, which will slaughter nearly a million of the highly intelligent animals to produce 3,000 tonnes of octopus meat a year.
“From Mumbai to Mexico City, protesters have come together, adding their voices to more than 100 academics who claim that farming carnivores known to be curious, affectionate and exploratory would be unethical and environmentally unsustainable. Others have tried to crack down on sectors before they start; Lawmakers in the US state of Washington are considering a ban on octopus farming after an online petition calling for a global ban has garnered almost 1 million signatures,” the Guardian reported on the scandal last month.
Food awareness organization Proveg International said if octopus meat were farmed instead, these fears and concerns could be allayed. “The news of the opening of the first commercial octopus farm is disappointing. Many of the challenges we see in our food system can be overcome through food innovation, and so we invite anyone considering the development of farmed octopus to come forward and apply to join our next team. It may sound like a moon shot – which the world needs now more than ever as conventional farming continues to push the boundaries,” says Albrecht Wolfmeyer, director of Proveg Incubator.
ProVeg’s Startup Incubator Program invites founders, who may be able to farm octopus or who propose other solutions to problems in our food system, to apply to their twice-yearly program. The incubator is designed to accelerate innovative alternative protein products to market with their investment, mentorship and 12-week accelerator program, including former alumni startups developing products, processes, platforms and ingredients from farmed meat and fat. .
Opportunity to solve urgent problems
“We’ve worked with startups developing some truly groundbreaking solutions across farmed meat, dairy, seafood and fats, and we’d love to work with more entrepreneurs to tackle pressing issues like octopus farming,” added Albrecht Wolfmeyer.
Proveg Incubator has worked with more than 90 startups since its inception in 2018. Former companies operating in the cellular agriculture space include Formo and Remilk (milk protein), Calminate (fat) Cellular Agriculture (bioreactor), Sticta (growth medium for use in agricultural meat production), and Clean Meat (chicken).
The incubator is accepting applications until Friday 28 July for its 11th cohort, which will start in late September, and is particularly keen to receive applications from startups developing egg, seafood and chicken alternatives, as well as other meat and dairy alternatives, ingredients and developers. Technology that can help replace major animal-derived products on a mass scale. Focus areas include functional ingredients, precision fermentation and biomass fermentation, cell cultivation and molecular cultivation, including active technologies, processes and platforms.
Visit provegincubator.com for more information and to apply