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This is not the first case in which the big leaders of high-tech multinationals decide to invest in the world of science and health. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, for example, decide to invest a lot of money in a revolutionary bacteria. The novelty is another: the decision to proceed together in the same direction. The strength and distinction of this genetically modified bacterium is another: the ability to change agriculture or strike a heavy blow to the use of nitrogen fertilizers. Only time can tell if intuition will succeed, but the premises are stimulating and almost ethically insuppressible. The data shows that in addition to consuming energy and polluting rivers, nitrogen fertilizers release a greenhouse gas 300 times more harmful than carbon dioxide into the air.
Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg together for a clean farming
The launch of Pivot Bio and the desire to present a product to American corn producers are at the heart of this project, before turning to other crops such as wheat and rice. The first steps are positive, considering that it has so far managed to raise $ 70 million to make the genetically modified bacteria capable of reducing the use of nitrogen fertilizers. From a technical point of view, the procedure adopted is extremely simple because it suffices for producers to spray the bacterium in liquid form on the seed itself.
Investors Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg enter the scene for raising $ 1 billion to invest in nine energy startups through the Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund. More specifically, it was created to finance companies whose capital does not require a maximum return of 20 years. And most of the resources collected by Pivot Bio come from this fund.
Traditional agriculture vs innovative agriculture
The road, however, is more bumpy than apparently seems to be, because among the obstacles to overcome, there is the resistance of farmers, who are not always inclined to experiment with new solutions. As Karsten Temme, co-founder and CEO of the company said, a factory is a bit like a human being. Ripe according to growth periods. In the middle of the growing season, the plant is teenage and you must provide the nutrients as quickly as possible because it is the fastest growing period. And again, Temme maintains that as soon as the seed germinates and the first root is formed, the bacteria can adhere precisely to this root and cover it like a glove.
In this way, it can provide food to the plant every day, eliminating the excess of fertilizer. According to him, the first commitment is to market a product for US corn producers, which the company calls Proven.
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