Pivot Bio’s Chief Technology Officer Travis Frey, Ph.D., brought the science behind biological nitrogen to the TEDxFargo stage with the recent video release of his new talk, The Smallest Factory in the World, exploring how advances in microbial technology are creating new possibilities for how agriculture produces and delivers nitrogen.

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Travis Frey, Ph.D., chief technology officer at Pivot Bio presents at TEDxFargo.

Travis Frey, Ph.D., chief technology officer at Pivot Bio presents at TEDxFargo.

Frey is no stranger to the science behind how crops work best, with more than 20 years of experience working in crop science. Widely recognized as a scientific innovator, Frey is the inventor on dozens of patents and author of numerous publications focused on plant health, genetics, crop performance and agricultural technology. His work has contributed to the development of new genetic traits and disease-resistance technologies that have been deployed across hundreds of millions of corn acres globally. He is now focused on the potential of biological nitrogen fertilizer.

Nitrogen is one of agriculture’s most essential nutrients but crops such as corn cannot directly use the nitrogen that makes up nearly 80% of the atmosphere. For more than a century, the Haber-Bosch process has helped bridge that gap, transforming global food production by converting atmospheric nitrogen into synthetic fertilizer. However, certain naturally occurring soil microbes can convert atmospheric nitrogen into forms plants can use.

The challenge is that these microbes typically stop producing nitrogen when they detect other nitrogen sources in the soil, including fertilizer farmers apply to their fields. “Nature solved this problem billions of years before we did,” Frey says in the talk. Today, advances in biotechnology are building on that natural process, creating another way to deliver nitrogen that works alongside the fertility systems farmers already use.

Pivot Bio scientists identified genes that act as an “off-switch,” signaling microbes to stop fixing nitrogen when other nitrogen is present. By using gene editing to quiet that natural off-switch, Pivot Bio’s microbes continue producing nitrogen throughout the growing season, even in the presence of other nitrogen sources, delivering it directly at the root where crops can use it.

For farmers, the potential goes beyond replacing a portion of conventional fertilizer. Advances in microbial nitrogen technology could help unlock new opportunities to improve nitrogen efficiency, support greater crop productivity and give farmers more control over how they manage one of their most important inputs. As microbial technology continues to advance, Frey sees an opportunity to make biological nitrogen an increasingly capable part of the broader crop nutrition system, providing farmers with another source of nitrogen while adding flexibility and resilience to how one of agriculture’s most important nutrients is produced and delivered.

Achieving that potential depends on how quickly science can advance. Unlike traditional plant breeding, which can take years to develop a new variety, microbial technology allows scientists to design, build, test and improve at a much quicker speed. That faster innovation cycle creates opportunities to continually increase the amount of nitrogen microbes can deliver and improve how effectively they support crop performance.

“In plant breeding, developing a new variety often took a decade,” Frey explains in his presentation. “With microbes, we can design, build, test, learn, and improve in weeks. What nature might take thousands of years to accomplish, we can now explore in months.”

That faster innovation cycle creates opportunities to continually improve how much nitrogen microbes can deliver and how effectively they support crop performance.

“What excites me most isn’t where we are today. It’s how fast biology can improve,” Frey says.

That potential is at the heart of The Smallest Factory in the World. A nitrogen-producing microbe is microscopic, but it can be manufactured and distributed at scale, packaged into a product small enough to fit in a farmer’s hand and delivered directly to the roots of a growing crop.

Combined with Pivot Bio’s domestic manufacturing capabilities, this approach offers farmers another source of nitrogen that is less dependent on the global fertilizer supply chains that have experienced significant volatility in recent years.

Frey serves as chief technology officer of Pivot Bio, where he leads the company’s research and development organization and the continued advancement of its microbial nitrogen technology.

Smallest Factory in the World can be watched here.

About Pivot Bio

Pivot Bio, one of the world’s leading agtech companies, delivers patented crop nutrition technologies that harness the power of nature to help farmers reliably and productively grow the food the world needs in the face of increasing volatility. Currently available in North America and soon in Brazil, the company’s products represent a breakthrough innovation and one of the agriculture industry’s most promising solutions. Pivot Bio has been recognized three times by TIME magazine on its annual list of Best Inventions, by Fast Company on its World Changing Ideas and World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies lists, by CNBC on its Disruptor 50 list, by Fortune on its Impact 20 list, and by MIT Technology Review as one of 15 climate tech companies to watch. For more information, visit PivotBio.com.

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