Synthetic fertilizer causes severe pollution because very little of it stays where it is supposed to. About 80% of fertilizer degrades before crops can use it, an average 20% of which becomes runoff or leaches into groundwater. In the US alone, this nutrient pollution impairs 15,000 bodies of water, 101,000 miles of rivers and streams, and two thirds of our coastlines. Nutrient pollution causes algal blooms toxic to humans and marine animals. Decaying algal blooms also create vast ​“dead zones” devoid of aquatic life because their decom­po­si­tion absorbs oxygen from the water. The Gulf of Mexico hosts the largest of these zones, due to runoff from the 31 states in the Mississippi River Basin. This flood of fertilizer kills off nearly every living creature in 5,840 square miles every summer.

Pivot Bio’s microbes form a tight rela­tion­ship with the crops’ roots and provide the right amount of nitrogen at every point in their lifecycle. This rela­tion­ship virtually eliminates nitrogen runoff and leaching from chemical fertilizer, saving tens of billions of dollars per year in regulatory costs and damage to rivers, lakes, and oceans that sometimes wipe out entire fisheries.

How Can I Quit You: Global Agriculture Needs Nitrogen, But Pivot Bio’s Is Better

Pivot Bio’s technology can support other staple crops like wheat, rice, and soy, and Pivot Bio has already demon­strated effec­tive­ness in the lab and beyond. There is a real urgency to delivering ​“living fertilizer” to staple crops worldwide, as nitrogen fertilizer is getting both more essential — and less effective and more costly (in dollars and pollution).

Fertilizer use has grown steadily despite its envi­ron­mental problems, with a nearly 4x increase in consumption in the last 50 years. Specific farming practices can mitigate fertilizer’s damage, but they cannot eliminate it, and these techniques have not become widespread enough to have their desired effect. 65% of crop acres in the US still need improved nitrogen management.

Unfor­tu­nately, as fertilizer use continues to increase, its efficiency has dropped signif­i­cantly because farmers system­at­i­cally overapply fertilizer – despite its diminishing returns – as they pursue maximum crop yield. The percent of nitrogen fertilizer converted to harvested crops has slipped from 68% in the early 1960s to 47% today. The rest becomes pollution.

We (regrettably) cannot disown nitrogen fertilizer at this point: it feeds 48% of the world’s population. When 3.5 billion lives hang in the balance, promptly abandoning the practice isn’t an option.

Pivot Bio’s microbes tailor their nitrogen production to corn’s (and other staple crops’) growth stages, and the microbes’ rela­tion­ship with the crops’ roots provides a steadier nitrogen source than inter­mit­tent fertilizer applications do.

The microbes have to date provided 35 pounds of nitrogen per acre on average — about 20% of the 130 – 200 pounds usually applied to corn. Pivot also tested their next generation of microbes, whose production capa­bil­i­ties had already increased to around 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre. Pivot Bio has a clear path forward, based on lab and greenhouse results, to increase their microbes’ nitrogen production to 150 pounds per acre — enough to replace traditional nitrogen fertilizer.

A High Growth Future

We invested in Pivot Bio because they are making envi­ron­men­tally-friendly fertilizers that eliminate cost, complexity, and pollution while increasing farmer produc­tivity and global feed security — all at the same time, all profitably.

Pivot Bio’s field trials generated incredible results, and the company has exciting numbers from their ongoing in-field Intent to Pivot program which we’re sure we’ll be sharing with you soon. Pivot Bio’s nitrogen-fixing microbes are revo­lu­tionary, and the compu­ta­tional breeding platform they’ve built opens the door for an endless variety of beneficial microbes. Congrat­u­la­tions to the Pivot Bio team — we’re excited to watch you change the world!