As the global population approaches 10 billion by 2050, the challenge of providing safe, nutritious food is growing more urgent. Climate change is further straining food systems, impacting water availability, crop yields, and livestock health. In this episode, two experts discuss innovative biotech solutions aimed at addressing these pressing issues, offering hope for a sustainable path forward in feeding the world.
As the global population approaches 10 billion by 2050, the challenge of providing safe, nutritious food is growing more urgent. Climate change is further straining food systems, impacting water availability, crop yields, and livestock health. In this episode, two experts discuss innovative biotech solutions aimed at addressing these pressing issues, offering hope for a sustainable path forward in feeding the world.
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Theresa Brady (00:24):
As our global population marches towards nearly 10 billion people by the year 2050, the challenge of having enough safe and nutritious food to feed everyone is becoming increasingly concerning. The accelerating impacts of climate change, affecting water availability, crop yields, severe weather events, and heat stress on animals, only add to the pressure on our food systems.
(00:49):
In today's episode, we explore these interconnected challenges. We talk with two experts who are at the forefront of developing and delivering technologies to help mitigate the crisis and provide hope that this challenge can be met head-on.
(01:03):
I'm Theresa Brady, and you're listening to I Am BIO.
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Shifts in climate and population dynamics are forcing us to rethink how we grow, distribute, and consume food. Today, we talk with our guests about biotech breakthroughs that reduce food waste and cut down on the need for water, fertilizers, and pesticides. And we explore how the health and well-being of livestock are intrinsically tied to the sustainability and availability of our food sources.
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Our first guest is from a company founded in 1929, initially focused on growing potatoes.
David Hirschi (01:58):
My name is David Hirschi. I'm the Vice President of Plant Sciences and Agronomic Programs at the J.R. Simplot Company.
Theresa Brady (02:05):
David describes how the company went from growing potatoes to becoming a major presence in food production.
David Hirschi (02:12):
The J.R. Simplot Company is a large agribusiness company. Family owned, privately held, headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
(02:22):
When it was founded, back in 1929, and quickly became one of the largest potato distributors in the United States, particularly in the western part of the United States... J.R. Simplot started it. He landed one of the first early contracts during World War II, provide dehydrated potatoes and onions to the US government and he quickly grew from there.
(02:42):
Started diversifying his business. Realized, "Hey, what do I do with all these potato peels?" Said, "I could feed cattle with that." Got into ranching, then he figured out that fertilizer makes these things grow more so he started buying up fertilizer and mining operations, and today, it's one of the largest privately-held agricultural businesses in the United States.
(03:01):
We farm and ranch on over 40 farms. We have 17 food-processing plants, all over the world. We have 17 ranching operations, all over. We have multiple phosphate mines, phosphate fertilizer production, ammonia plants, sulfuric acid plants... All with the goal, really, to feed the world through our products.
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And we have about 16,000 employees making and selling nutritious food across US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, India, China... That's the J.R. Simplot Company.
Theresa Brady (03:31):
In the early 2000s, Simplot began to recognize the need to improve crop resilience and productivity. Especially in the face of growing pressures from climate change, population growth, and more and more limited agricultural resources.
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So the company created the Plant Science Division. To focus on technology-driven solutions for modern agriculture. Not surprisingly, the first innovation involved the potato.
David Hirschi (03:59):
'Bout ten years ago, launched the very first biotech potato. We call it, "Innate." Innate really gets its name from the fact that we take the best potato traits that we can find, in any potato, and we find the genes for those, and we bring those into highly-used process varieties. Very popular process varieties that are missing those attributes. And so, it's innate to the potato and we pick those innate traits and bring 'em into the commercially-accepted varieties.
(04:30):
So our Innate potatoes, we have a black spot bruise reduction. So, when you peel the potato, it doesn't brown, right? Or when the potato is impacted somehow, it doesn't bruise. And so that reduces waste 'cause a processor takes those bruises and they cut out the bruised parts of the potato before they process it. So without bruising, you don't need to do all that cutting out and so you use more of the potato.
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And so we've had these products in the market, across food service and retail outlets, for the last 10 years. We have over 1.7 billion servings of these potatoes out, into the marketplace, over that time period.
Theresa Brady (05:04):
David says, "Reducing waste through eliminating bruising is only one innovation with the Innate potato."
David Hirschi (05:10):
One of the first diseases that we tackled was phytophthora, which is a late blight disease that happens late in the season for potatoes. It was actually the disease that caused the potato famine in Ireland, that made the whole mass migration. So, we've been able to target multiple gene strategies that make a potato resistant to phytophthora and basically eliminated phytophthora in potatoes that have our trait packages associated with it. I should say, "Limited," or, you know, "Significantly reduced," the susceptibility to late blight.
Theresa Brady (05:40):
Innovative technology developed by Simplot's Plant Science Division is now reaching beyond the potato to other crops with the help of CRISPR-Cas9. A technology that's been the topic of several I Am BIO episodes. Though widely known for its groundbreaking applications in healthcare, it is equally transformative for agriculture.
David Hirschi (06:01):
Here at Simplot, we use everything from traditional agrobacterium all the way to the latest gene-editing tools like CRISPR-Cas9 and OpenCRISPR. We're also incorporating machine learning, leveraging... We've got these large genetic databases and these large phenotype libraries so we use machine learning to facilitate our gene discovering and gene prediction.
(06:23):
We're really excited about, especially, machine learning. Being able to use and develop new technologies like OpenCRISPR.
Theresa Brady (06:29):
One shining example of CRISPR application that David highlights, is how the company uncovered an important gene that controls the shelf life of the strawberry.
David Hirschi (06:39):
How often do you go to the grocery store and buy strawberries? The next day, you go into your fridge to look at 'em and they're already mushy and bad. Right? A pretty common strawberry problem. They, maybe, have, by the time it gets to the grocery store, three days, maybe two days, of shelf life. In fact, if you look at Costco, or Walmart, or any of the big retailers, they lose 30% of their strawberries before a consumer even gets 'em. So there's a significant berry loss due to spoilage.
(07:03):
So, what we've been able to do through gene editing is, we have found a variety of strawberry that naturally has a 15 to 20-day shelf life. Which is huge, right? The problem with this berry is that it's... It only grows for a short period of the season. So it's not really commercially viable. It takes $100,000 an acre to grow and harvest strawberries. So if you can't leverage that strawberry through the whole growing season, it's not worth supplying.
(07:32):
But what we were able to do is, we looked at this strawberry that had a great shelf life but it just had that short flowering, and we looked at the genes of this strawberry. And strawberries are octoploid so they get eight copies of their DNA from mom, eight copies from dad. And when looking in those copies, we could see that, "Oh, they have this 'short flower' gene but they also have this 'flower all the time' gene."
And so, through CRISPR, what we did is, we just turned off, essentially, the short season flowering gene so it now, it uses its own everbearing genes that it already has in the strawberry plant. And so now, this great shelf life berry now flowers all the time. So now, it's commercially viable.
(08:10):
So now, by using CRISPR-Cas9, we're able to take this great variety that had great taste and great shelf life, but only grew a short part of the season, make it so it flowers all season long. So now, growers want to grow this, and now we have access to these strawberries that are great tasting, have a 30-day or 25-day shelf life. All through CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tools.
(08:31):
So you essentially eliminate, or significantly reduce, that 30% loss at the grocery store, that 15% loss getting to the grocer itself, and when you open up your fridge, you're gonna have berries that are good.
Theresa Brady (08:44):
Ensuring strawberries remain edible for longer will make this healthy food available to more people. Simplot is also looking to develop drought-resistant crops.
David Hirschi (08:55):
One of the challenges for potatoes is, potatoes really only grow in certain climates in certain regions. And people like french fries. So the demand for french fries is going up but we're running out of spaces to grow potatoes, effectively. And so we're really looking at, "How do we grow potatoes in marginal ground?" That means we have to move to places where there's less water, higher temperatures...
(09:17):
We, every year, and we've been doing this for the last decade, we look at different gene strategies and we just try 'em out. In the field. The ones that work, we keep. The ones that don't work, we throw away. And we've now found a number of genes that really positively impact the photosynthetic process. Or they help the potatoes to start growing earlier in the season so we get a longer grow season. And they tend to not wilt when there's, gets to high temperatures.
(09:41):
So, we found all these gene strategies and we've started product development path. So we've got, probably, four or five really exciting strategies that enable us to grow in less-water situations, higher-heat situations, and still maintain the same yields that we see in these prime conditions. So we're pretty excited about these. We've got two of these that are well down the product development path and will s- be commercializing within the next four to five years. So we're excited about that.
(10:07):
Four to five years might sound like a long time but in the, the breeding world it's 15 to 20 years to get a new variety out. And with CRISPR-Cas9, we can do it in five years.
Theresa Brady (10:17):
The possibilities for food production and availability seem endless. CRISPR is allowing scientists to enhance crops in ways that were previously unimaginable.
(10:33):
After the break, we talk to a scientist on the livestock side of the equation about the stresses threatening animal health, which in turn, threaten food availability and affordability.
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Now we turn our attention to livestock. Our next guest's company also uses CRISPR technology, but to improve the well-being and health of food animals.
Tad Sonstegard (11:40):
My name is Tad Sonstegard, and I am the CEO of Acceligen.
Theresa Brady (11:42):
Acceligen's gene-edited livestock solutions are poised to address key challenges in food production and sustainability, as Tad explains.
Tad Sonstegard (11:53):
Acceligen's technology is really based upon gene editing. So, our vision is to build a business from this next evolution in breeding technology, which is based on the ability to recode DNA using applications based on gene-editing tools like those developed from CRISPR-Cas systems. Our focus is on developing traits that improve animal well-being and health, regardless of the production system or environment.
(12:18):
Acceligen's mission is, really, to empower its partners. And by partners, I mean animal breeders, farmers, ranchers, to have access to these traits or genetic opportunities to breed better animals for a better planet.
Theresa Brady (12:29):
One of the more recent innovations in farm animal breeding is called genomic selection. It uses DNA-based information to improve the selection of animals with desirable traits. It has revolutionized livestock breeding by increasing its speed and precision.
(12:46):
Tad's company is working on the next generation of genetic tools for livestock breeding.
Tad Sonstegard (12:52):
The ability to read DNA for genetic improvement was the first step, and now with this technology Acceligen has, we can rewrite the code to help speed that up even more. Thus, the name Acceligen.
(13:05):
The issue with genomic selection is, if the trait doesn't exist in the animal, you can't select for it. So, we're providing the trait so that you can actually select for it downstream. You have to introduce it into the population in order for it to be selected upon.
Theresa Brady (13:21):
To be clear, Acceligen does not produce livestock. Only the tools to produce livestock with desirable traits.
Tad Sonstegard (13:28):
Really, our main products are not the animals themselves, the food from the animals. Our products are really straws of semen. From the animals we make we collect semen, it gets frozen, and then it's used by something the industry does very widely, which is artificial insemination to breed offspring. And so that trait gets passed on and the benefits of that trait. Only need one copy and you can inherit that from the semen when you make the calf.
Theresa Brady (13:56):
Acceligen has a robust pipeline of traits in development and some that have already hit the market. Tad explains that the first two out of the gate were traits focused on enhancing the health and quality of life for livestock.
Tad Sonstegard (14:08):
Our lead traits have basically been to remove horns from cattle, which is called "polled." That's something that exists naturally. And then heat tolerance which is also something that exists naturally. Whereby we're just shortening the coding region of a gene and that confers the ability of these animals to grow less hair and they also maintain a lower normal body temperature than a regular cow.
Theresa Brady (14:34):
For non-farmers in our audience, Tad shares what "polled" animals are.
Tad Sonstegard (14:38):
Some breeds are naturally polled and some grow horns. Wild livestock, before they domesticated them, had horns, in general. And some producers, when they domesticated cattle, saw, "Hey, look. This animal doesn't have horns. We're gonna breed this specific animal." And what they noticed was, is that, they felt safer around the animals.
(15:00):
The animals didn't hurt each other, because they use the horns for fighting with each other and setting up their hierarchy within the herd, and they also use it against predators. Well, predators don't exist in most of our production systems today, and horns can damage product or damage neighboring animals when they're at the feed bunk, and there's certainly a danger to the farmer.
(15:24):
So in the dairy industry, most of the animals still have horns because it's a trait they forgot to get rid of as they were breeding for high milk yield. And so, what our technology allows them to do is, you can maintain that selection for milk yield, and health, and all the other things they're selecting on, but we can get rid of the horns in a single generation. So when the replacement female is born from a cow, they don't have to use caustic paste on their head to disbud the potential growth of a horn out of the animal.
(15:56):
So, it's just... It's a... It's a management trait, in the fact that there's no cost, ah, longer associated with removing the horns, and there's no veterinary intervention, and there's no opportunity for the animal to feel any pain. That's all removed from the equation.
Theresa Brady (16:13):
Tad outlines the benefits of the company's other trait that is already on the market.
Tad Sonstegard (16:17):
The benefits of that trait, in this case, heat tolerance is dominant, and that gives them the ability to withstand tropical heat but still live up to their full genetic potential. And so now, you can take that Holstein from Wisconsin, the genetics from that, you make your edited bull, you collect the semen from it, you export that semen to a tropical zone like Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil... And you can breed that animal to a local cow, and you can increase the milk production very rapidly. And that animal... The Holstein genetics is protected because it has this heat-tolerance gene added.
(16:55):
I think, the most potential for its impact is gonna be in emerging economies where the population is outgrowing the potential of their current capabilities for producing animal protein. Or it could be even past the limits of what their resources are to do so.
(17:18):
If we look at what, ah, an average animal produces for dairy in sub-Saharan Africa, the yield gap in milk is huge. I mean, sometimes it's twelvefold, between a cow they have there, versus a cow we have in the United States. So i- even if we could double, or triple, that output of a native animal that's been crossbred with our genetics that we provide, it would have a huge impact on increasing the local food supply. In this case it would be milk. Which is like a white gold.
(17:49):
I mean, smallholders who raise dairy animals, they use that milk to sell to local people. And then the money they get from selling that milk, they use for sending their children to schools. Or they can begin to increase the size of their operation and become entrepreneurial. Right? And increase the amount of production they can do.
(18:10):
Being able to fortify those genetics and increase their revenue at the same time, that's like a savings account with interest. And that's the way they really look at that.
Theresa Brady (18:19):
Tad tells us that, "Overall, the technology Acceligen is developing will reduce the environmental impact of livestock production."
Tad Sonstegard (18:27):
The biggest benefit from our technology is breeding animals that better fit. Because it's based on genetics by environment interactions. So we're changing the genetics to match the environment, without changing the genetics for production potential. So we're just allowing that animal to reach its full genetic potential, whereas if we didn't do a heat adaptation, it would never reach that full genetic potential, 'cause it would always be sick or suffering from heat stress. Right?
(18:53):
So, what's important about that is, cattle, in particular, can eat things, or graze upon lands, that just aren't suitable for crop production. And they're great converters of forage into protein, as long as you're using those genetics that have already been optimized.
(19:11):
And the animals are gonna stay healthy. If the animal's not healthy, it has a pretty... It has a much larger environmental impact because it's just there, producing nothing, barely surviving, and it's using resources and not contributing anything back, so... I think that's where our technology ha- could have the biggest impact. So, you get more bang for your buck, as far as resources go, in producing animal protein.
Theresa Brady (19:40):
As you might imagine, another critical area in animal agriculture is addressing disease. Not only for animal health but also for our environmental sustainability. Acceligen is currently developing disease-resistant traits.
Tad Sonstegard (19:55):
So we have a couple of different disease-resistance traits. We have an edit for a gene that makes pigs resistant to PRRS. It's unique, as far as what the edit is. Ah, we haven't commercialized that yet.
(20:08):
Probably what we're best known for is the trait we work on, actually, with collaborators in the US government at Clay Center, Nebraska. Scientists there. Together, we've come up with an edit of a gene that allows cattle to be resilient to bovine viral diarrhea virus. So, that disease causes about two billion dollars in estimated losses, per year. Just for the US beef industry. But it's a global disease and there are animals that catch this virus, and they're persistently infected. So they're kind of like the Typhoid Marys of the herd, and they keep getting everyone else sick.
(20:48):
So, what's interesting is, the disease that we're tackling here, this virus, it's had vaccines for years. Those vaccines just don't work very well. So this genetic solution could be a game changer in the fact that you wouldn't have to use the vaccine anymore, and an animal's not gonna get infected with BVD, according to our initial results, which means that the following treatment, when an animal gets BVD is, other diseases infect the animal, and so they treat them with antibiotics.
(21:18):
So, BVD is kind of like the initial downer disease, so, the gateway disease, and then they get more infections, and they get sick, and you have to treat them. So, if you're in an antibiotic-free program to produce beef or dairy? Those animals get disqualified right away. So this is something that's gonna provide a solution. Not only to conventional producers, but even organic farmers, as well. If this technology were accepted by organic sector.
Theresa Brady (21:44):
Tad touches on a key point. The importance of market acceptance of the technology. Without consumer confidence, even the most groundbreaking advancements can face resistance from the public. Here's Tad's perspective.
Tad Sonstegard (21:57):
So, there's a lot of promise for the use of this technology. I think people just need to get comfortable and understand it. I think the upstream part of the value chain, that's processing food and selling retail, is still very wary of being tagged with GMO. And, of course, if it affects their bottom line on sales, they don't want to be associated with it. So there has to be a benefit in it for them, as well.
(22:21):
And really, that benefit's gonna have to come from consumer demand. So, if I'm providing a premium product, and it was raised locally, and it's gene edited, because it provided heat tolerance so that that food could be there, then I think the consumer would demand it. And then the people selling and, and trading those food products would be more likely to carry it.
(22:44):
So, there's a lot of work yet to be done, I think, on social license. You know, we've been more focused upstream, on breeder acceptance. Farmers have used GMO crops and they're fairly comfortable with ag applications, and we're just recoding parts of the genome. Small bits. They're really accepting of it, especially if they don't have to go and do crossbreeding to like, get rid of horns or bring in heat tolerance. Or some disease resistance.
(23:10):
I think, if the consumer understands that it's a benefit to the animal and to the environment, then it's also a benefit to them.
Theresa Brady (23:16):
And from the crop side, here is the perspective from Simplot's David Hirschi, who we talked with earlier.
David Hirschi (23:22):
I think if you, you think about the challenges of biotechnology and adoption there, there's really three areas that we think about. There's the technical challenge of doing it, right? There's the regulatory pathway challenge, in, "How do you get regulatory acceptance?" And there's market adoption.
(23:39):
And it might be strange to say, but the easiest of all three of those is the technology. The regulatory pathway is hard but it doesn't need to be hard. It's just slow. But the, the consumer side is... Even though we've had GMO crops, or gene-modified crops, accepted in the US for the past 20 years, there's still been this historical hesitancy to adopt crops.
(24:01):
People are just starting to realize that after the last 20 years, we haven't grown a third leg, I haven't grown a third eye. And we're starting to see adoption, commercially, improve. And one of the things driving that adoption is this desire, we've talked about sustainability, is they want less pesticide use, they want water use efficiency, they want more smart usage of fertilizers. And they realize that, "The only way I'm gonna get some of those goals is by accepting gene-editing technologies." 'Cause those are the technologies that are gonna enable these sustainability targets.
(24:33):
That one thing is doing the most to really improve acceptance across the consumer base. Not only in the US, but in Europe and elsewhere. So we're starting to see it across the globe.
Theresa Brady (24:51):
Both David and Tad have shown us today that technology and innovation are the driving forces behind creating a truly sustainable food system. It's exciting to know that we are already on our way to producing more food with fewer resources while reducing waste and minimizing the carbon footprint of food production. I want to thank David and Tad for explaining how it can be done. And for being on the show.
(25:18):
If you liked what you heard today, be sure to let us know with a review. And remember to follow us on X, Facebook, and Instagram, at I Am Biotech. We're also on LinkedIn at Biotechnology Innovation Organization.
(25:32):
I'm Theresa Brady, and I produced this episode with help from Kourtney Gastinell. It was engineered and mixed by Jay Goodman, with theme music created by Luke Smith and Sam Brady.