The world’s top fertilizer producer wants to sell carbon-guzzling soybeans

The world’s top fertilizer producer wants to sell carbon-guzzling soybeans: The world’s largest fertilizer producer Nutrien will begin selling a genetically modified variation of soybeans that soaks up more carbon dioxide than natural counterparts while producing more oils and proteins for biofuel production, Bloomberg writes. The US market will be the first to receive the offering in time for the 2024 season.

How it works: The alternative soybeans — produced by US-based startup ZeaKal Inc — essentially “trick” crops to think they need more nutrients, effectively prolonging photosynthesis and enabling them to store more carbon than traditional counterparts.

REMEMBER- Tweaking agricultural practices could help store some 31 gigatons of greenhouse gasses per year and avoid surpassing the 1.5°C warming threshold. Increasing agricultural soil carbon-storage capacities by just 1% across half of global farming soils could help plug the 32 gigaton emissions gap between current CO2 slashing targets and the carbon volumes that must be cut by 2030 to remain within the 1.5°C warming limit.