From the Daily Mail:
A juicy ribeye steak is a treat for many, but meat eating is increasingly falling out of fashion due to ethical and environmental concerns.
Now, an Israeli company has revealed the world’s first ever 3D bioprinted ribeye made with real cow cells, and it is completely cruelty and slaughter-free.
Scientists took swabs from two cows, cultivated them in a lab, and pieced them all together to form a replica steak.
What is it about artificial meat and Israel? Maybe it’s just that Israel happens to be a very inventive place just now, and whatever innovation you happen to be a spotter of, you’ll find yourself being directed towards Israel.
I wonder if the pariah status of the state of Israel is some kind of cause of this super-inventiveness, if that’s what it is. If so, it reminds me of how religious non-conformists in Britain, similarly cut off from polite society, were so heavily involved in the Industrial Revolution.
Here‘s an article from the Israeli practice of my old firm Deloitte which goes some way to explaining Israel’s innovation culture.
That link seemed not to work at first, but I think I fixed it so it does.
In the article, the key piece of information is that Israel is very well educated, with more graduate engineers than anywhere else. The rest of it reads more like: Israel is very innovative, because Israel is very innovative.
But it does at least clarify that Israel is very innovative. Which in my original posting was just a guess. So, thanks.
Politically, Israel is indeed much denounced. But also, says this article, this doesn’t stop the world’s big businesses wanting to get involved.
During the Cold War, it was very hard for Jews to leave the USSR, and if they did they had to give up most of their assets when doing so. However, the USA was completely open to anyone who did during that period. After 1991, Jews were free to leave and were also permitted to keep or sell their assets. The vast bulk of them did. However, the USA to an extent closed its doors, and was no longer automatically open to Jews leaving Russia and other former Soviet states.
However, Israel was open, and the majority of Jews leaving the USSR – which was most of the Jews of the USSR – went to Israel instead. This was a large portion of the most skilled and best educated part of the population of the USSR. These people have been an enormous economic boon to Israel, and are a major driver of Israel’s tech economy.
(It was of course, stupid of the US to close its doors in this way. Some got to the US anyway and went on to do things like found Google, but Israel actually got the bulk of the benefit of this emigration.)
Michael
Thanks. That would explain it.
Brian, I think there’s a little more to the Deloitte article than you’re giving it credit for. The key points I took away from it were:
– a culture of investing a high proportion of GDP in R&D – I’ll come back to that…
– the high level of engineering education – which you referenced
– the mandatory military service – building a high sense of responsibility and success orientation among young people, and I would add developing their risk appetite
– several waves of academic immigration – the point Michael elaborated on
– the government support: the incubators, funding and tax breaks
– the high level of venture capital
– a regulatory environment giving them a high ranking in international competitive flexibility rankings.
In addition there is a cluster network effect here -as in Silicon Valley. Once a high tech cluster gets some momentum it becomes self reinforcing, encouraging a culture of entrepreneurship, giving young people the opportunity to work in start-ups before founding their own, encouraging growth in venture capital which becomes a virtuous circle.
What the article only touches obliquely on is the role of the military. The Israeli military is one of the most hi tech in the world and a lot of that R&D expenditure is driven by them, with very close links between the military and a lot of those hi tech companies.
Here are another two pieces which elaborate on that:
https://nypost.com/2017/01/29/why-israel-has-the-most-technologically-advanced-military-on-earth/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258834011_Military_Capital_in_the_Israeli_Hi-Tech_Industry
Apologies, I don’t know how to convert the links to shorter titles…
Michael: you’re almost right.
1st, Israel is the country of immigrants in much bigger percentage than any Western country, including US. Practically, everyone in Israel is an immigrant, since the country officially exist only since 1948. It means, ALL waves of immigration brought brains in, not just former residents of USSR. Is a doctor who emigrated from France/ Iraq/South Africa/ USA somehow is less academically gifted than doctor from Russia? Don’t think so.
2nd, in 1990s USSR limited hard cash per person (permanently leaving the country) to $130. My family emigrated in 1992; we were allowed – in addition to cash in exactly this amount – to have (1) gold ring or (1) pair of earrings per person. Any other “assets” were officially prohibited. Add to it the fact that having R.E. property was illegal, as well as currency exchange. Apartments where people lived for 3 generations were not bought, bit “received” from the state or from a ministry/factory/city fund, etc and were required to “return” for free – and more often than not to pay for the privilege.
3rd. No, USA didn’t automatically opened the doors – but the doors were still open to those who could prove persecution and did get their refugee status (not just Jews. Baptists, too, f.ex., or Chechens, or other persecuted minorities). Vast majority of my expats came to US in the 1990s – a wave comparable in size with “White Russian” emigration of 1920s.
4th -that’s not to Michael: in what Universe Israel is a “pariah state”? Well, maybe in antisemitic UK, along with Middle East. And with Biden Admin, along with current Dem party.
Other than that, Israel has always been a major ally of the USA. And that’s all “polite society” than matters.