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The Tiny Organisms Transforming Farming | Karsten Temme | TED

10:26Added Aug 30, 2026

What if the solution to feeding humanity has been hiding in the soil for millions of years? Bioengineer Karsten Temme discovered a remarkable answer to this ...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. 00:08This jar contains a few ounces of soil.
  2. 00:11It looks pretty ordinary, doesn't it?
  3. 00:14But what you can't see is that it's teeming with life.
  4. 00:18The microbes inside are poised to become farmer's greatest tool
  5. 00:22and transform how we feed humanity.
  6. 00:24I'm Karsten Temme, founder of Pivot Bio,
  7. 00:27and I have dedicated my career to studying these microbes.
  8. 00:30They can and will revolutionize agriculture.
  9. 00:34Give me a sec while I set this down.
  10. 00:38So from the plow to the grain combine,
  11. 00:40humans have invented tools to grow more on the same amount of land.
  12. 00:44Fertilizer is the greatest of these.
  13. 00:47All those nutrients that a plant combines with sunlight to grow.
  14. 00:51Here's an example.
  15. 00:52In the 1950s,
  16. 00:54American farmers produced 2,600 kilos of corn per hectare.
  17. 00:59Today, there are yield competitions
  18. 01:01where the winners can generate more than 32,000 kilos
  19. 01:04on the same amount of land,
  20. 01:06in a large part because of the fertilizers
  21. 01:08they can use to fuel that crop.
  22. 01:10It's just amazing.
  23. 01:12But for all the good it does,
  24. 01:13fertilizer is an inelegant solution.
  25. 01:16Last year, farmers around the globe spent more than 200 billion dollars
  26. 01:20on nitrogen fertilizers alone.
  27. 01:22They spray it on their fields
  28. 01:24and then pray that roots can find it
  29. 01:26before it's lost.
  30. 01:29Because if that fertilizer is lost,
  31. 01:30the crop can end up starved of its nutrients
  32. 01:33and stunted in its yields.
  33. 01:36Those losses also translate to unintended consequences.
  34. 01:41Some becomes nitrous oxide,
  35. 01:43a greenhouse gas that's 265 times more potent than CO2.
  36. 01:47Some seeps into our groundwater.
  37. 01:50And some runs into our rivers and oceans,
  38. 01:52creating more than 500 dead zones around the planet.
  39. 01:57So there's got to be a better way.
  40. 02:01And I'm here today to tell you that there is.
  41. 02:03And it's rooted in biology.
  42. 02:04You see, 78 percent of the air around us is nitrogen gas.
  43. 02:07That's a form that plants can't use,
  44. 02:10and so they've partnered with microbes on a process called nitrogen fixation.
  45. 02:14The microbes can breathe in that nitrogen gas
  46. 02:17and turn it into a form that plants can metabolize.
  47. 02:20It's a symbiosis, a partnership that's worked for millions of years,
  48. 02:24right up until the point that humans started breeding crops
  49. 02:27to be more productive.
  50. 02:29Those bigger yields needed more nutrients,
  51. 02:31and fertilizer was invented to fill the gap.
  52. 02:35Well microbes in response shut down that nitrogen-fixing function,
  53. 02:39putting those genes into hibernation.
  54. 02:42What if we could wake them back up?
  55. 02:45What if we could use modern tools like gene editing
  56. 02:48to bring those microbes back to being specialized helpers for farmers?
  57. 02:53Then we could have a way for those microbes to live with the plant
  58. 02:58alongside the roots,
  59. 03:00sensing the crops nutrient needs and responding in real time.
  60. 03:04Well that’s a challenge that I set out to pursue two decades ago,
  61. 03:08along with my friend, lab mate and cofounder, Alvin.
  62. 03:11We made it our mission to get those genes working again.
  63. 03:16So here's how that went.
  64. 03:18We collected soil samples from farms across the United States.
  65. 03:23We extracted the microbes, we reprogrammed their DNA,
  66. 03:25and we cranked that nitrogen- fixing function to 11.
  67. 03:29Then one day in the lab,
  68. 03:30we saw that there was a test tube with a tiny corn seed germinating.
  69. 03:35Our microbes were living along the roots of that plant,
  70. 03:39producing nitrogen and sharing it with that tiny plant.
  71. 03:42That test tube represented a breakthrough.
  72. 03:44We had shown that we could create microbes
  73. 03:47that could sense and respond to the plant's nutrient needs
  74. 03:50in real time.
  75. 03:51We thought we had just solved agriculture.
  76. 03:54Well, spoiler alert, not quite.
  77. 03:56Across the last 15 years,
  78. 03:58we have been working to transform this breakthrough into a system
  79. 04:01that serves farmers on three continents today.
  80. 04:04I believe that across the next decade,
  81. 04:06we can help farmers reduce half of the fertilizer that they need.
  82. 04:11So what I wanted to do is take you on a quick little journey
  83. 04:14to meet three of the farmers that are using these microbes right now.
  84. 04:18So meet John.
  85. 04:19He's a corn farmer in Michigan who runs a 1,295-hectare farm.
  86. 04:24It's a complex operation, and he's got a lot of variables to manage
  87. 04:27so he doesn't need anymore.
  88. 04:29John’s turned to Pivot for the last five years to simplify his life.
  89. 04:33Each year we've sent him a little less than four kilograms of freeze-dried,
  90. 04:37powdered microbes,
  91. 04:39and he's coated the seeds with microbes,
  92. 04:41planted them as normal.
  93. 04:43Once in the ground, those microbes have gone to work.
  94. 04:46They eat sugars from the crop,
  95. 04:47they fix nitrogen and share it back with the plants.
  96. 04:51And then when the crops are harvested, those microbes die,
  97. 04:53ensuring they only do what we intend.
  98. 04:55Now they're operating at the cutting edge,
  99. 04:57alongside satellite mapping and soil monitoring,
  100. 05:01slow-release fertilizers and precision machinery.
  101. 05:04It means that yields at John's farm have boomed.
  102. 05:08His dad regularly applied more than 225 kilos
  103. 05:11of nitrogen fertilizer per hectare
  104. 05:13and generated about 8,500 kilos of corn.
  105. 05:17Today, John's able to apply less than 140 kilos of fertilizer,
  106. 05:21and yields have risen to 11,500 kilos.
  107. 05:25On that same land.
  108. 05:26It's amazing.
  109. 05:28And what gives me the most pride is that our microbes are helping
  110. 05:31make his job easier,
  111. 05:34while increasing his bottom-line profitability.
  112. 05:37And John's not alone.
  113. 05:38Our microbes have been used on as much as five percent of the US corn crop.
  114. 05:43So if you'll zoom with me about 7,000 kilometers south,
  115. 05:46I'd like to introduce you to Charles.
  116. 05:49Now Charles runs a large farm in Brazil.
  117. 05:51Brazil is an agricultural powerhouse.
  118. 05:54It's one of the world's top three corn producers.
  119. 05:57Yet, yields average just about 6,000 kilos per hectare.
  120. 06:01So there's a lot of room for upside improvement.
  121. 06:03One of the biggest limiting factors is nitrogen fertilizer.
  122. 06:07Brazil imported more than 80 percent of its nitrogen fertilizers last year.
  123. 06:12And that's something it's looking to reverse through microbes,
  124. 06:15both with us and others.
  125. 06:17So Pivot's been working with the Ministry of Agriculture
  126. 06:20to test and adapt our products ahead of commercial sales.
  127. 06:24And I'd like to give you a little bit of a look into Charles's farm,
  128. 06:27where he's counting on those microbes to supply about 30 kilos of nitrogen
  129. 06:32alongside the 120 kilos of nitrogen fertilizer
  130. 06:36he's applying every acre.
  131. 06:37That's about 25 percent less than he normally would use.
  132. 06:41Now the crop’s a couple weeks away from harvest,
  133. 06:43but what you'll see is the plants are larger, greener,
  134. 06:46they're healthier, they've got bigger root systems.
  135. 06:50All that sets up the crop to be more resilient
  136. 06:53in the face of an unpredictable climate.
  137. 06:55It also means that's a bigger factory for producing higher yields
  138. 06:59at better profitability.
  139. 07:01This is a boon for Charles's operation.
  140. 07:03It's also an opportunity for Brazil to have strategic independence,
  141. 07:07because these microbes can be brewed like beer close to the farm.
  142. 07:11That means no more reliance on foreign chemicals
  143. 07:14or global supply chains.
  144. 07:16We're also working in Kenya.
  145. 07:18And I'd like to introduce you to Margaret.
  146. 07:20Now every morning, Margaret wakes at 4 am
  147. 07:22and as she walks five kilometers to reach her small plot of land.
  148. 07:25For her,
  149. 07:27fertilizer isn't just an expense, it's a significant investment.
  150. 07:3136 dollars for a 50-kilo bag.
  151. 07:34She applies it by hand and then prays that the rains don't wash it away,
  152. 07:37because all it takes is one rainstorm
  153. 07:40and that investment is washed away.
  154. 07:43And with it, her family's security is upended.
  155. 07:46So this is where the limits of fertilizer are most apparent,
  156. 07:49where there's no margin for safety.
  157. 07:52So what Pivot's done is we've teamed up with MIT
  158. 07:54and local partners
  159. 07:56to adapt our product and supply chain
  160. 07:58to work for smallholders like Margaret.
  161. 08:01We've shrunk our packaging.
  162. 08:03We've built a just-in-time network
  163. 08:05where farmers can text the day they're ready to plant,
  164. 08:08and we can motorbike them the freshest microbes possible.
  165. 08:11The results are astounding.
  166. 08:13Not only are the crops more resilient to those rainstorms,
  167. 08:17yields have improved 60 percent.
  168. 08:20(Applause)
  169. 08:24You know, the biggest complaint we've received
  170. 08:27is farmers say,
  171. 08:28"You haven't told me what the product is or where I can buy it."
  172. 08:32So I started with this jar of soil.
  173. 08:39The microbes inside have already transformed how fertilizer works
  174. 08:43across millions of hectares,
  175. 08:45making it smart, dynamic, living.
  176. 08:49Since 2022,
  177. 08:51farmers have been able to prevent more than 1.3 million metric tons
  178. 08:55of greenhouse gases.
  179. 08:57What's needed next
  180. 08:58is to be able to scale this system across hundreds of millions of hectares.
  181. 09:03And here's what that's going to require.
  182. 09:05It's going to require creating a global network for microbial manufacturing.
  183. 09:10But it's different than building fertilizer factories
  184. 09:13that cost billions of dollars.
  185. 09:15Biomanufacturing can scale at one two-hundredth the cost.
  186. 09:20It also gives us an opportunity to rethink supply chains
  187. 09:23to make them local and flexible.
  188. 09:25So in Michigan, that might mean FedEx is the best way
  189. 09:28to deliver those microbes,
  190. 09:30and a motorbike in Kenya might be the best last-mile solution.
  191. 09:34And what excites me the most
  192. 09:36is that we can spread a web of agronomic knowledge
  193. 09:39to connect farmers like Margaret, Charles and John together,
  194. 09:43helping them share knowledge with each other
  195. 09:45on the best way to put these microbes to work,
  196. 09:48to not just increase yields,
  197. 09:50but to improve efficiency and profitability.
  198. 09:53You see, when we build infrastructure on top of these microbes,
  199. 09:57we're not just deploying a new type of product.
  200. 10:00We're building a better way of farming,
  201. 10:03one that works with nature and not against it,
  202. 10:05helping farmers grow more with less.
  203. 10:09Soil is our oldest agricultural technology,
  204. 10:12and it's the next frontier.
  205. 10:15With the microbes in here,
  206. 10:17we can empower farmers to grow the future
  207. 10:20from the ground up.
  208. 10:21Thank you.
  209. 10:22(Applause)
The Tiny Organisms Transforming Farming | Karsten Temme | TED — Transcriptly