It all starts with the soil. Healthy soil enables renewable, sustainable, carbon raw materials. Around our plant in Luverne, Minnesota, soil carbon is increasing as farmers use regenerative farming practices.
The crops are growing, year after year. Thanks to low-till and no-till farming methods, such as strip-tilling, the soil improves with more organic material, season after season. The benefits to the farmer are substantial, as much of the stover remains in the fields, while some goes to feed livestock, which contribute manure to fertilize the fields. This makes for less synthetic fertilizer required to be bought and spread, which means the farmer has to invest less to have better yield.
Gevo has chosen to leverage this efficient and scalable biological system. The corn uses photo synthesis to draw carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, and store it in the roots, stalk, leaves, and kernels of the corn. This is the same way the carbon contained in fossil fuels was sequestered in the earth millions of years ago. Our way is faster. Drawing carbon from the atmosphere, Gevo puts it to good use, employing Earth’s natural systems to improve farm yields, reduce dependence on synthetic fertilizer, and foster economic growth in rural communities.
We’d like to see a business system that rewards farmers for the hard work of improving the soil as they grow their crops using regenerative agriculture. What will it take? It takes a business system that values a resilient and reliable agriculture program that can serve as the basis of a supply chain that produces both food and fuel. Gevo has the potential to make the connections happen and accelerate the growth of raw materials to help rural economies.
We need to explore energy sources that harness the economic power of transportation and agriculture sectors to diversify our supply. Our country currently is dependent on the energy derived from fossil fuels. Gevo is working to change that by harnessing agriculture to produce fuels and building soil through regenerative agriculture. By using agriculture to create renewable energy, we see a pathway to use the corn that is already raised in our fields as a resource—reducing our reliance on traditional energy sources while securing a resilient fuel supply that is inexhaustible.
Regenerative agriculture can address other issues in addition to reducing dependence on synthetic fertilizer. Sustainable agriculture practices such as reducing tillage, growing cover crops, and nutrient management can build soil health for more resilient crops, reduce soil erosion, improve water quality, and improve water efficiency.
Learn how farmers switching to use regenerative agriculture is the key to unlocking energy and nutrition. They can see a demonstrated increase in yield as they reverse the flow of carbon.