Oct 30, 2024

Nature-Based Soil Treatment

Chris Stokel-Walker

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Windfall Bio Methane-Eating Microbes

While the world focuses on tackling carbon dioxide, methane is in some ways more harmful, with up to 86 times more warming potential than CO2 over a 20-year period. Windfall Bio is trying to remedy that “myopic” focus, says CEO Josh Silverman. Customers—mostly farmers—buy Windfall Bio’s naturally occurring methane-eating microbes, and spread them over soil. The microbes get to work, eating up the methane produced during the decomposition of organic matter in the same way yeast consumes sugar, while also capturing nitrogen from the air, producing organic fertilizer. “This is something we can actually do today,” Silverman says, “and we can make changes to climate in the next decade.”

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