Rethinking Sustainable Agriculture


credit: eattilapia

There are already several creative, novel solutions that promote and 'rethink' sustainable agriculture. One of them is William (Bill) Orts, the Bioproducts Research Leader at USDA's Western Regional Research Center (USDA-ARS), who is leading the helm to make agriculture more sustainable.

From re-purposing almond shells to developing synthetic rubber, Orts is an expert when it comes to making the world a more sustainable place. He also firmly believes in making agriculture local. "Locally produced, locally sourced, and reduce carbon miles — just keep those closed loops tighter."

Investment firm Data Collective VC (DCVC) invests in companies leveraging such creative, innovative strategies for agriculture. One of DCVC's portfolio companies, Pivot Bio, is helping farmers reduce fertilization costs and increase crop yield through a nitrogen producing microbe that delivers nitrogen directly to crop roots.

While Orts believe in locally-sourced agriculture, Pivot Bio is working directly with farmers to make agriculture more sustainable.

According to Kiersten Stead, Managing Partner at DCVC Bio, to make agriculture more sustainable, "adopting new advancements in breeding, automation, land management and consumption are required."

Orts and Stead's work and vision are already making agriculture more sustainable and cleaning up the environment. Read the Entire Article


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Ganesh Natarajan is the Founder and Chairman of 5FWorld, a new platform for funding and developing start-ups, social enterprises and the skills eco-system in India. In the past two decades, he has built two of India’s high-growth software services companies – Aptech and Zensar – almost from scratch to global success.