Track 4 Session Details

Jamie Bacher, CEO, Boost Biomes

Increasing efficacy and reliability of multi-microbial products for use in agriculture

There are many drivers for the adoption of biologicals products in agriculture. However, biologicals are typically considered less effective and reliable than chemical products, which has slowed their adoption. Boost Biomes has developed multi-microbial and endophytic crop protection products that are highly effective and address critical, unmet needs. These products are more effective than standard microbial products, and often as effective as chemical products. Furthermore, our products can be incorporated into a standard, integrated pest management strategy with extremely low residual pesticide levels. The Boost Biomes platform identifies actual interactions between microbes, enabling discovery and development of a broad range of novel, effective and reliable crop input biological products.

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Ben Cloud, CEO, Biodel AG, Inc.

Microbial Soil Reclamation with Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria are inhabitants of soils, where they form micro-biotic assemblages on the soil surface and with other organisms such as lichens, mosses, bacteria, algae, and fungi (Weber, Budel, & Belnap, 2016). Cyanobacteria are able to survive long droughts (Bar-Eyal et al., 2015), prolonged ultraviolet exposure (Garcia-Pichel & Castenholz, 1991), and high salt concentrations (Chen, Li, & Liu, 2003). This capacity along with the possibility of isolating them from soils and culturing them ex-situ, makes cyanobacterial inoculation a potentially successful soil restoration bioengineering tool. Our results showed that cyanobacteria inoculation with N-fixing species that are present worldwide, can rapidly modify properties of reconstructed soil substrates, resulting in a considerable increase in biocrust coverage, cyanobacteria biomass, and soil organic Carbon levels. The benefits of applying cyanobacteria as bio-tools to enhance soil fertility and initiate recovery of soil function in infertile substrates may be substantial, e.g. by reducing associated costs of external fertilizer and amendment inputs (Maestre et al,. 2017,; Singh et al., 2016). Cyanobacterial biofertilizer formulations have been reported to be very useful in ameliorating various physio-chemical properties of marginal soils and the EPS (exopolysaccharide's) produced by cyanobacteria seems to play an important role (Nisha et al., 2007). Since salinity is a major constraint to crop growth and germination is the most sensitive and decisive stage for successful crop establishment (Soltani et al., 2007). Production of EPS was found to be stimulated by salts which in turn had significant Na+ removal capabilities. Sequester, a Cyanobacteria based crop input.

 

Keith Matthews, Of Counsel, Wiley Rein LLP

Regulatory Challenges Impacting Adoption of Novel, Innovative Agricultural Inputs

Each of the technology producers presenting during this session has developed, and are developing, novel, innovative products that will have positive agronomic and environmental impacts. That said, agricultural input products are one of the most heavily regulated sectors in U.S. industry. I will discuss some of the challenges facing new product developers as they seek to take products to market.

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Chad Pawlak, CEO, Locus Agriculture

Why Microbes are the Leading Factor for Soil Carbon Sequestration?

Growing in popularity around the globe, carbon farming has the potential to be a major contributor in reducing carbon emissions. But there are still a lot of questions around these programs. Namely, how impactful are the efforts? And are the reductions permanent? What are the true benefits to farmer and farming? As a living system, soil depends on the presence of carbon to function in the areas of biological productivity, ecological vitality, and plant and animal health. Soil carbon is the primary component of soil organic matter, which encompasses all organic components of the soil system including living and dead plant and animal tissues, and soil microbes. Soil microbes break down plant organic matter to carbon dioxide or convert it to dissolved organic carbon (DOC) compounds. As DOC binds to soil particles, it allows for long-term carbon storage, making the soil an effective carbon sink. While plants take in most of their carbon from the air, organic matter is the food and energy source for soil bacteria, fungi, worms, and other members of the soil food web. Microbes are the most valuable player (MVP) in global efforts to capture and store soil carbon efficiently and effectively, according to a most recent global-scale study published in Nature (2023). The multi-year study indicates that creating permanent carbon capture in regenerative agriculture should include the use of microbial-based products, such as biologicals. This presentation shares the potential of a different type of carbon farming program – one based around the use of microbes, or agricultural biologicals that includes on-farm carbon sequestration data from the industry’s first microbial-based carbon farming program.

 

Josh Silverman, CEO, Windfall Bio

Transforming dilute methane emissions into on-site fertilizers

Windfall Bio is a nature-based agricultural technology company that harnesses methane-eating microbes to transform harmful methane into organic soil nutrients on site. Windfall Bio will drastically reduce the carbon footprint of the Earth’s food system, increasing profits for the farmers that feed our communities without increasing costs to consumers.  Windfall Bio provides microbes, digestors, and associated services that allow for the capture and transformation of methane from a variety of sources, including direct capture of methane carbon from the atmosphere.

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Kristi Snell, CSO and VP of Research, Yield 10 Bioscience, Inc.

Camelina, a versatile oilseed crop for sustainable manufacture of low carbon intensity seed products

Yield10 Bioscience’s goal is to develop and commercialize the oilseed Camelina to produce low carbon intensity (CI) seed products. The company is developing Camelina to produce: 1) low CI feedstock oil for renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), 2) omega-3 oils containing high levels of EPA and DHA fatty acids for sustainable aquaculture feeds, and 3) renewable, biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) bioplastics as a new co-product with seed oil. Winter varieties of Camelina are especially intriguing as a production platform in that they grow off season on otherwise fallow land reducing or eliminating indirect land use changes to further improve CI scores. Yield10 estimates that if 25% of the corn and soybean acres in the US were planted with oilseed cover crops this would enable over 40 million acres of production. Cover cropping with winter Camelina provides added benefits of reducing nutrient runoff and soil erosion and improving soil quality and health. Yield10 is developing Camelina into a robust crop for broad farmer adoption by incorporating weed control systems that allow seamless integration into current crop rotations. The company is also developing new traits to increase seed yield and/or oil content to boost revenue per acre. Results from these programs will be highlighted.