“With the push of a red button, a milky-colored liquid sprayed onto a load of corn seed at a warehouse in central Missouri. It was a hint of a revolution underway in American agriculture, driven by a desire to combat climate change while still feeding and fueling the world.
Inside that liquid were bacteria whose DNA had been altered so that once the corn seeds are in the ground, the bacteria create extra nutrients for the plants. That could greatly reduce the need for the chemical fertilizers that dominate modern agriculture…
Just five years after they were introduced, the seeds are being used on 5 percent of American corn crops…
Pivot estimates that last year, its treated seeds prevented the release of an estimated 706,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent — comparable to the greenhouse gasses from burning 1.5 million barrels of oil.”
From New York Times.