This Startup Is Engineering Crops That Can Fertilize Themselves

“The idea is that it would be able to let you reduce–and maybe ultimately replace–synthetic nitrogen fertilizer,” says Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Gingko Bioworks, a Boston-based genetic engineering company, which partnered with Bayer, the multinational biochem company, to launch the new, as-yet-unnamed ag-tech startup. The startup plans to harness microbes that live on a few crops–like beans and peanuts–that make those plants able to fertilize themselves and bring the same capability to plants that can’t, particularly corn, wheat, and rice, which alone make up more than 55% of fertilizer use. As the new startup works on the technology, Bayer will make use of its extensive collection of microbes that it knows “play well” with particular crops. Gingko Bioworks will bring those into its lab, where it can print new DNA and design new microbes that (if all goes well) will fix nitrogen on crops like corn.