In a changing planet with diminishing resources, will we be able to produce enough food to feed the world? Our current food production practices lead to more greenhouse gasses than car, train, and airplane emissions combined(1).  While human population has expanded substantially within the past two centuries, the population is projected to increase by 3 billion people in the next 30 years(2). To feed the world, we would need to double our current food production with the land that we currently utilize for crops. Current agriculture uses 50% of the world’s farmable land(2), an area that is roughly the size of South America for crops alone1. So, we are faced with the challenge of producing enough crops on the land we currently use and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, all at a rate that outpaces human population growth(1).

 

Agricultural producers are faced with the impossible challenge of increasing production goals, while being limited with their financial investments. Farmers only receive about $0.07 per dollar every American spends on food(3). Since the early 20th century, there has been an increase in synthetic and chemical products that can be used to increase crop yield. Every year nitrogen production increases by 15 trillion grams (terragrams) due to increased demand(4). When in the hands of the farmer, only half of the applied nitrogen is taken up by the crop(5), costing the farmer more than it’s actually worth in their fields.

 

Recent shifts in farming initiatives, like regenerative agriculture, focus on agricultural biology and community-oriented collaboration efforts to revolutionize agriculture’s degenerative effects on the land. For example, regenerative agriculture can improve nutrient and water uptake by plants, which can increase food production by 58%, globally1.

 

Regenerative agriculture and the unseen majority solution

 

Regenerative agriculture initiatives provide a systems-oriented solution. Bruce Caldwell, founder and CEO of 3BarBiologics, said “There’s a lot of excitement right now about the whole regenerative agriculture movement.”

 

The “unseen majority” is a common phrase that refers to microorganisms in biological research.

While farming practices have historically focused on aboveground revenue in the form of crop yield, regenerative agriculture encourages farmers to invest the biological processes that support “the unseen majority” and benefit from microbial carbon storage as belowground revenue.

 

While sustainable agriculture, by definition, maintains systems, regenerative agriculture mitigates the impacts of degenerative agricultural practices through the mediation of ecological processes. Efforts made by some companies through “greenwashing” (a false impression of a company’s environmentally sustainable incentives to deceive consumers) may deter or disinterest farmers. However, regenerative agricultural practices aim to bridge the gap between current agricultural research and farming communities to rebuild and encourage healthy soil practices over time.

 

Overcoming economic barriers with microbial ecology

 

As the climate changes, modern agricultural crops will struggle with adaptation due to crop breeding and cultivation. Modern crop varieties do not promote ancient relationships between plants and the microbes that have allowed plants to establish on land. Microbial products provide a solution to this, a solution that is crop-specific, yet customizable with shifting environmental conditions. Similar to the gut microbiome, Dr. Paul Zorner, CEO of Locus Agricultural Solutions (Locus AG), calls microbial solutions for agriculture, “probiotics for plants.”

 

Small microbial biotech companies, like 3BarBiologics face many challenges in expanding their product use. Although Caldwell’s products target conventional corn crops, which is the majority of American agriculture, smaller microbial companies still face obstacles in expanding their clientele. Caldwell explained that larger manufacturers have access to direct farmer education through sales representatives, establishing trust within cooperative farming communities. To compete in this market, 3BarBiologics use creative strategies to build relationships that benefit the company as well as the farmers.

 

One way that they do this is by partnering with a farmer and performing small-scale experiments on farmers’ land. “Conventional farmers are just really starting to awake to the idea of soil being a complex living system,” says Caldwell. Farmers tend to be preoccupied with acre expansion to meet production needs. By producing data with farmers on-site with small-scale experiments, Caldwell explained that farmers can measure their return on investments through crop yield while using their microbial products.

 

For the past 50 years, conventional farmers have used synthetic fertilizers, chemicals, and other practices that ignore soil microbiology. By building relationships with farmers on-site, companies like 3BarBiologics can work with farmers to see their return on investments year after year.

 

“Replacing chemistry with biology”

 

Dr. Matt Wallenstein, the department head of the Soil and Crop Department at Colorado State University and the co-founder, co-inventor and chairman of Growcentia, has observed the shift in agricultural practices over time. Wallenstein sees microbial initiatives in agriculture as “replacing chemistry with biology.”

 

Microbial solutions to agriculture have acquired the tainted “snake oil” name because of limitations in mass production, like product viability during shipment. Many manufacturers distribute spore-forming bacteria that do not survive distribution conditions, leading to failed results in the field.

 

However, companies like 3BarBiologics and Locus AG distribute living microbes. Locus AG uses is a highly concentrated, live microbial product that increases the chances of microbial population survival in the field. By applying living microbial products to the field, farmers can be more certain that the applied product will inoculate their crops.

 

Building economic solutions for farmers through collaboration

 

Companies like Nori in Seattle, Washington have created a private sector marketplace for carbon removal. They have partnered with companies like Locus AG to provide farmers with transparent solutions that help farmers make money. Farmers can receive $15 from Nori for every carbon ton stored belowground.

 

Nori has acquired $2 million from outside investors to begin the pilot phase of their company before their formal market launch. Their pilot phase includes partnering with organizations, such as COMET-Farm developed by Dr. Keith Paustian at Colorado State University. COMET-Farm’s planner tool can be used to get data directly from farmers and increase the market value of farms across the country.

 

Nori’s pilot study focuses on increasing farmer revenue by financially rewarding farmers for increased carbon storage in their soils. Nori’s Director of Carbon Economics, Aldyen Donnelly, says that farms that have acquired soils data have an increased value compared to farms that have no data.

 

Companies like Nori depend on the initial soil data to create a benchmark in improving carbon storage in the soils and removing it from the atmosphere. While Nori has established a proxy practice, they hope that this new way of viewing carbon from the regenerative agriculture perspective can increase farmer incentives financially and ecologically, while addressing current climate issues.

 

Microbial products can be used increase crop yield aboveground and store carbon belowground to increase revenue for farmers. By encouraging regenerative agriculture incentives through collaborative partnerships, companies like Nori are finding ways to make money for farmers by increasing the value of ecologically mindful practices.

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Sources Acquired Online

(1) Foley, J. (n.d.). A Five-Step Plan to Feed the World. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/

(2) Ranganathan, J., Waite, R., Searchinger, T., & Hanson, C. (2019, July 16). How to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts. Retrieved from https://www.wri.org/blog/2018/12/how-sustainably-feed-10-billion-people-2050-21-charts

(3) Dewey, C. (2018, May 2). Why farmers only get 7.8 cents of every dollar Americans spend on food. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/02/why-farmers-only-get-7-8-cents-of-every-dollar-americans-spend-on-food/

(4) Fields, S. (2004). Global nitrogen: cycling out of control.

(5) Cao, P., Lu, C. C., & Yu, Z. (2018). Historical nitrogen fertilizer use in agricultural ecosystems of the contiguous United States during 1850–2015: application rate, timing, and fertilizer types. Earth System Science Data Discussion, 10, 969.

 

Interview Sources

Bruce Caldwell / CEO and founder / 3BarBiologics

Dr. Paul Zorner / CEO / Locus Agricultural Solutions (Locus AG)

Dr. Matt Wallenstein / Department Head; Co-founder, co-inventor, chairman/ Soil and Crop Department at Colorado State University; Growcentia

Aldyen Donnelly / Director of Carbon Economics / Nori