Genetic Innovation for Healthier Food

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Technology is allowing new genetics companies to innovate with crops that haven’t got quite as much attention as major crops like corn, wheat and soybeans. Benson Hill CEO Matt Crisp says a combination of data science, plant science, and food science is enabling them to create valuable genetics for farmers and food companies.

Crisp… “For every crop that folks have innovated on and spent R&D dollars on - which you can kind of count them on one hand, really, you know, there's 20 crops that hasn't been innovated on, and that really deserves a lot of this kind of attention and R&D dollars. And to your point earlier, the collapsing cost curves of these enabling technologies and the advancement of technology generally speaking, is now enabling us to do that in a way that's accessible, not just, you know, behind the closed doors of the largest three to five seed companies in the world, but at companies like Benson Hill and others.”

Crisp said access to this new technology is allowing them to breed not just more productive crops, but more nutritious food.

Crisp… “You know, our focus is really, again, going back to the beginning, back to the crop, back to the seed. And trying to bring back some of the genetic diversity that we've maybe bred away from over the last decades, and re-introduce the nutrition profile that enables our food system to embrace some more healthy options and more macro nutrition for our society.”

Learn more at BensonHill.com.