This year, Indiana farmer Jake Misch is taking a different approach to nourishing his crops. He’s applying a gene-edited microbe to his field, designed to give the corn in his fields the nitrogen it needs to thrive.

The new approach helps to reduce the environmental impact of farming, according to a new story in OneZero.

Scientists at Pivot Bio, a California-based startup, used gene editing to make tiny tweaks to the genetic code of soil bacteria. The result is a microbe that produces nitrogen, a vital micronutrient for soil and plants. 

Misch decided to use the new microbes after seeing the results of one of the field trials. 

“The plants were mature, but what I could see was bigger stalk diameters, a little more ear-fill on the tips, and some deeper kernels,” he said. “Those things all add up to yield.”