Making the best use of farmland in between growing seasons is one way to step up to the challenge when facing a global food crisis. CoverCress, a climate-smart seed technology company, has farmers covered with a new cover crop that’s converted from a particular weed called field pennycress.
When CoverCress grain is crushed, the oil produced is a lower carbon intensity feedstock for multiple uses, such as high-protein animal feed, renewable diesel fuel and sustainable aviation fuel.
“CoverCress really, truly is a climate-smart seed technology,” said Mike DeCamp, President & CEO of CoverCress. “We’ve taken what was a winter weed. We’ve modified it through breeding and gene editing to improve yield, improve maturity, to change the oil content and change the oil quality to create a new rotational crop that fits within the Midwest. We grow in the wintertime. We grow on otherwise fallow land. And because of that, we get this very low carbon intensity score. And when our grain is ultimately crushed and that oil is extracted, it’s a tremendous feedstock for producing renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel.”
Discover more about this 39 North-based company in this video!