What if the future of agriculture didn't need soil?

As climate change, resource shortages and growing global demand place increasing pressure on traditional agriculture, some companies are looking beyond the farm field for solutions.

Israeli biotechnology company BioHarvest Sciences is developing plant-based ingredients using cell cultivation technology, producing compounds inside bioreactors instead of growing entire crops. 

According to CEO Zaki Rakib, the approach has the potential to reshape how health supplements, food ingredients and pharmaceutical products are made while dramatically reducing environmental impact.

Speaking in an interview, Rakib explained that BioHarvest does not cultivate plants in laboratories or greenhouses. Instead, the company isolates productive cells from plants and grows only those cells responsible for producing beneficial compounds.

"We take the original cells from the plant, and we never see the plant again," Rakib said. "We basically grow only the productive cells that create those valuable compounds that we're looking for."

Rakib described BioHarvest's technology as an example of the ancient philosophy of using nutrition to support health.

"We are the manifestation of what Hippocrates said about 2,000 years ago: 'Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,'" he said.

The company's platform combines artificial intelligence, automation, computer vision and programmable biology to identify and cultivate plant cells containing desirable compounds. According to Rakib, this allows BioHarvest to create ingredients that are more potent, accessible and consistent than those produced through traditional agricultural methods.

Beyond health benefits, Rakib said the technology's sustainability advantages. He said BioHarvest's production process requires significantly fewer resources compared to conventional farming.

"It's about a hundred times less in terms of electricity, land or water required for the same amount of ingredients," Rakib said. "We compare apples to apples by looking at how many grapes, how much land and how much water would be needed compared to producing the same amount of ingredients through our process."

As cellular agriculture gains momentum globally, questions remain about whether companies can scale production efficiently enough to compete with traditional agriculture. Rakib said BioHarvest has spent 15 years refining its proprietary platform to address that challenge.

"We've developed a proprietary platform that leverages AI, automation, computer vision and programmable biology," he said. "We spent 15 years perfecting this platform, and that's why we can cover multiple industries."

Rakib added that BioHarvest remains focused exclusively on plant cells, which he views as a key strength in a rapidly evolving sector.

One of the company's flagship products is Vinya, a dietary supplement derived from red grape cells. Rakib said the product was inspired by the so-called "French paradox"—the observation that French populations have historically experienced relatively good cardiovascular health despite diets rich in saturated fats, a phenomenon often associated with polyphenols found in red grapes and red wine.

"It's a red grape cell-based composition," Rakib explained. "We actually grow the cells that contain a high concentration of these polyphenols."

Among those compounds is resveratrol, an antioxidant that has been studied for its potential health benefits. According to Rakib, BioHarvest's technology enables the concentration of these compounds at levels difficult to achieve through conventional consumption.

"In one capsule containing 400 milligrams of this powder, it's equivalent to 1,000 grapes," he said. "You would have to eat 1,000 grapes with all the sugar or drink an entire bottle of wine to get what you're going to get in one single capsule that you take daily."

While nutritional supplements are currently among BioHarvest's commercial offerings, Rakib said the company is pursuing opportunities across several industries, including food, pharmaceuticals and fragrances.

"We are into food as well as pharma and fragrances," he said. "We have multiple projects going on simultaneously."

Among those initiatives are partnerships focused on developing sweetener molecules with major industry players, as well as efforts to cultivate saffron compounds for both food and nutraceutical applications.

Rakib noted that saffron, one of the world's most expensive spices, presents an opportunity not only because of its value but also because much of the global supply is concentrated in specific regions.

"Saffron is one of the most expensive culinary ingredients, and about 90% of it is grown in Iran," he said. "There are geopolitical matters in this case."

By producing saffron compounds through plant cell cultivation, BioHarvest hopes to create a more stable and sustainable supply for both food manufacturers and the dietary supplement industry.

As concerns over climate change, food security and resource scarcity continue to mount, Rakib believes plant cell technology could become an increasingly important part of the future agricultural landscape.

Whether these innovations will fundamentally transform the food system remains to be seen. But companies like BioHarvest argue that growing valuable plant compounds without relying on traditional farming methods may offer a new path toward producing food, health products and medicines more sustainably.

"We're focused on extracting from nature the most beneficial compounds and making them more potent, more accessible and more consistent," Rakib said, "while using a fraction of the resources required by traditional agriculture."