Israeli start-up bringing urban farming to countertops

An Israeli couple has found an innovative way to make sure their kids get their vegetables. Inspired by 3-D printing, Tsipi and Ben Shoham have found a high-tech way to grow a nutritious vegetable source with no care or fuss.

"This is a real high-tech system integrated with agriculture in a way nobody has done before," Ben, the CEO of Green Onyx said.

Ben explained that the idea for the product came from his wife - who has a PhD from the Weizman Institute of Science and advanced work at Stanford University under her belt - and her search for nutritious ways to feed their kids.

Ben, who is also an engineer and start-up veteran himself said he and his wife took a scientific approach to finding the best vegetable nutrition.

“After screening many types of bio-sources, we came across Khai-nam. In 1970, Nature had an article about it. So it’s not a secret vegetable – it existed for hundreds of years in Japan — but it is complicated to grow and only grows in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos these days," Ben said. "We wanted to find a way to develop it."

After much trial and error, the result was GreenOnyx, a countertop machine that cultivates and grows the sea vegetable automatically and then delivers the nutritious green food source at a push of a button in either liquefied or paste form.

The juice can then be used to make smoothies and the paste can be used to add nutrition to nearly any meal.

“Think of it as a vegetable base you can integrate into any dish,” Shoham said, adding that all that the user needs to do is add a packet a month to have fresh veggies each day. “Depending on the strain, it has a very neutral, fresh taste like sweet cabbage, and no smell.”

Source: jspacenews.com