AI and Crop Yields: Google X Lab Incubates New Startup Heritable Agriculture to Boost Agriculture

In an unconventional move, Google X's "Lunar Factory" recently announced the independent development of a new startup, Heritable Agriculture. This new company will use data and machine learning technology to improve how crops grow, a significant boost for agriculture. According to Heritable Agriculture, plants are efficient and astonishing systems. "They (plants) are solar-powered, carbon-negative self-assembling machines that rely on sunlight and water for survival."

This doesn't take away from the fact that agriculture places immense pressure on the Earth and its resources, accounting for about 25% of greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities. That makes it the largest consumer of groundwater globally. Additionally, the frequent use of chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers contributes to soil erosion and water pollution.

Enter Heritable Agriculture 

Heritable Agriculture is a new startup that aims to help address these global issues by analyzing vast datasets. The founder and CEO, Dr. Brad Zamft, stated that while data collection is often straightforward, there's a real "challenge to convert this data into actionable instructions to help farmers bring this 12,000-year-old industry into the 21st century."

The inspiration behind Zamft's idea came from his experiences as a program officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which preceded his role as Chief Scientist at the venture-backed TL Biolabs. Thereafter, he joined Google X at the end of 2018, quickly becoming the project lead for Heritable.

Accordingly, Zamft emphasized the use of machine learning technology to analyze plant genomes and identify combinations that could improve crop yields. 

What to Expect 

With an understanding of plant genomes, Heritable can breed crops with climate-friendly traits to increase yields, reduce water dependency, and enhance carbon storage in roots and soil. The company has also erected dedicated growth chambers to test thousands of plants located in the San Francisco Bay Area, coupled with fieldwork in California, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

While Heritable still uses gene editing techniques, such as CRISPR, Zamft emphasized that the company is currently focused on traditional breeding methods rather than genetic modification. He went on to state that 'there is a pressing market demand for improved breeding, hence Heritable's efforts to help farmers select suitable parent plants for mating, rather than using biotechnology to directly develop crops.

One round of seed funding was completed and included investors such as FTW Ventures, Mythos Ventures, and SVG Ventures. Even Google has participated with an undisclosed stake in the startup.