The CEO of one of the world’s largest fertilizer companies warns of an impending food crisis, but biotech has solutions.
What they’re saying: Our dependence on fertilizer from Russia and Ukraine allowed Putin to “weaponize” food, Yara International CEO Svein Holsether told the Financial Times. Compounded by the impacts of weather on harvests, the fertilizer shortage threatens global food security.
The problem: Most chemical fertilizers contain nitrogen—which plants need—but traditional fertilizers can pollute the water supply and emit greenhouse gases.
The solution: greener fertilizer, said Holsether—something many biotech companies are developing.
Enter microbes: BIO member companies Ginkgo Bioworks and Bayer, for example, are cooperating through their joint venture Joyn Bio to solve the problem, as Bloomberg highlighted last week. Using synthetic biology, Ginkgo and Bayer alter the microbes that colonize cereal crops, like corn, wheat, and rice, so they naturally fix nitrogen into the soil.
Why it matters: By reducing the need for industrial nitrogen fertilizers in some of the most common crops, biotech innovation can help reduce the use of fertilizers, primarily sourced from Ukraine and Russia (and account for 3% of greenhouse gas emissions).
More Agriculture and Environment News:
Bloomberg: EU seeks to simplify rules in global race to boost clean tech
“The initiative, which is still subject to change ahead of its adoption on Wednesday, would ease state-aid rules to compete with the US Inflation Reduction Act, which includes roughly $500 billion in new spending and tax breaks over a decade.”
