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Imagine you are a part

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of a crew of astronauts

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traveling to Mars or some distant planet.

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The travel time could take a year,

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or even longer.

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The space on board and the resources

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would be limited.

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So you and the crew would have
to figure out how to produce food

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with minimal inputs.

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What if you could bring with you

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just a few packets of seeds,

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and grow crops in a matter of hours,

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and what if those crops would then
make more seeds,

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enabling you to feed the entire crew

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with just those few packets of seeds
for the duration of the trip?

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Well, the scientists at NASA actually
figured out a way to do this.

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What they came up with
was actually quite interesting,

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and it involved microorganisms,

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which are single-celled organisms.

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And they also used hydrogen from water.

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The types of microbes that they used
were called hydrogenotropes,

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and with these hydrogenotropes,
you can create a virtuous carbon cycle

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that would sustain life
on board a spacecraft.

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Astronauts would breathe out
carbon dioxide.

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That carbon dioxide would then
be captured by the microbes

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and converted into a nutritious,
carbon-rich crop.

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The astronauts would then eat
that carbon-rich crop,

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and exhale the carbon out
in the form of carbon dioxide,

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which would then be captured
by the microbes

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to create a nutritious crop,

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which then would be exhaled
in the form of carbon dioxide

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by the astronauts.

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So in this way, a closed loop
carbon cycle is created.

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So why is this important?

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We need carbon to survive as humans,

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and we get our carbon from food.

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On a long space journey,

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you simply wouldn't be able to pick up
any carbon along the way.

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So you'd have to figure out
how to recycle it on board.

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This is a clever solution, right?

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But the thing is, that research
didn't really go anywhere.

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We haven't yet gone to Mars.
We haven't yet gone to another planet.

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And this was actually done
in the '60s and '70s.

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So a colleague of mine,
Dr. John Reed, and I,

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we were interested actually
in carbon recycling here on Earth.

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We wanted to come up
with technical solutions

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to address climate change.

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And we discovered this research

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by reading some papers published
in the '60s, 1967 and later articles

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about this work,

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and we thought it was a really good idea.

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And so we said, well,
Earth is actually like a spaceship.

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We have limited space

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and limited resources,

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and on Earth we really do need
to figure out how to recycle

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our carbon better.

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So we had the idea,

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can we take some of these NASA-type ideas

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and apply them to our carbon problem

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here on Earth?

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Could we cultivate
these NASA-type microbes

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in order to make valuable products
here on Earth.

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And we started a company to do it,

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and in that company,

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we actually discovered that these
hydrogenotropes,

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which I'll actually call nature's
supercharged carbon recyclers,

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we found that they are
a powerful class of microbes

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that had been largely overlooked
and understudied,

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and that they could make
some really valuable products.

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And so we began cultivating
these products, these microbes in our lab.

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We found that we can make
essential amino acids

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from carbon dioxide using these microbes,

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and we even made a protein-rich meal

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that has an amino acid profile

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that's similar to what you might find
in some animal proteins.

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And we began cultivating
them even further,

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and we found that we can make oil.

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And oils are used to manufacture
many products.

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We made an oil that was similar
to a citrus oil,

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which can be used for flavoring
and for fragrances,

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but it also can be used
as a biodegradable cleaner

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or even as a jet fuel.

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And we made an oil
that's similar to palm oil.

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And palm oil is used to manufacture
a wide range of consumer

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and industrial goods.

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So we began working with manufacturers

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to scale up this technology,

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and we are currently working with them
to bring some of these products to market.

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We believe that this type of technology
can indeed help us

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profitably recycle carbon dioxide
into valuable products,

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something that's beneficial for the planet

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but also beneficial for business.

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But that's what we're doing today,

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but tomorrow, this type of technology
and using these types of microbes

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actually could help us
do something even greater,

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if we take it to the next level.

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So we believe that this type of technology

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can actually help us address
an issue with agriculture,

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and allow us to create
a type of agriculture that's sustainable,

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that will allow us to scale
to meet the demands of tomorrow.

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And why might we need
a sustainable agriculture?

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Well actually, it is estimated
that the population will reach

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about 10 billion by 2050,

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and we're projecting that we will need
to increase food production

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by 70 percent.

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In addition, we will need many more
resources and raw materials

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to make consumer goods
and industrial goods.

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So how will we scale to meet that demand?

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Well, modern agriculture simply cannot
sustainable scale to meet that demand,

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and there are a number of reasons why,

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and one of them is that modern agriculture
is one of the largest emitters

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of greenhouse gases.

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In fact, it emits more greenhouse gases

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than our cars, our trucks, our planes,

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and our trains combined.

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Another reason is that modern ag

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simply takes up a whole lot of land.

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We have cleared 19.4 million square miles

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for crops and for livestock.

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What does that look like?

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Well, that's roughly the size
of South america and Africa combined.

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And let me give you a specific example.

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In Indonesia, an amount
of virgin rainforest

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was cleared totaling the size
of approximately Ireland

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between 2000 and 2012.

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Just think of all of the species,

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the diversity, that was removed
in the process,

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whether plant life, insects,
or animal life.

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And a natural carbon sink
was also removed.

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And so let me make this real for you.

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This clearing happened primarily
to make room for palm plantations.

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And as I mentioned before,

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palm oil is used

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to manufacture many products.

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In fact, it is estimated
that over 50 percent of consumer products

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are manufactured using palm oil.

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And that includes things like ice cream,

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cookies.

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It includes cooking oils.

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It also includes detergents,
lotions, soaps.

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So you and I both

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probably have numerous items

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in our kitchens and our bathrooms

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that were manufactured using palm oil.

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So you and I are direct beneficiaries
of removed rainforest.

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So modern ag has some problems,

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and we need solutions
if we want to scale sustainably.

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So I believe that microbes
can be a part of the answer,

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and specifically these super-charged
carbon recyclers.

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These super-charged carbon recyclers,

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like plants, serve as
the natural recyclers

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in their ecosystems where they thrive,

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and they thrive in exotic places on Earth

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like hydrothermal vents and hot springs.

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And in those ecosystems,
they take carbon and they recycle it

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into the nutrients needed
for those ecosystems.

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And they're rich in nutrients,

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such as oils and proteins, minerals,

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and carbohydrates.

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And actually, microbes are already
an integral part of our everyday lives.

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So if you enjoy a glass of pinot noir

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on a Friday night
after a long, hard work week,

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then you are enjoying
a product of microbes.

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If you enjoy a beer
from your local microbrewery,

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a product of microbes.

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Or bread, or cheese, or yogurt.

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These are all products of microbes.

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But the beauty and the power
associated with these super-charged

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carbon recyclers

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lies in the fact that they can actually
produce in a matter of hours

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versus months,

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so that means we can make crops

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much faster than we're making them today.

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They grow in the dark,

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so they can grow in any season

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and in any geography and any location.

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And they can grow in containers
that require minimal space.

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And we can get to a type
of vertical agriculture,

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instead of our traditional
horizontal agriculture

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that requires so much land.

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We can scale vertically,

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and as a result produce much more product

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per area.

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If we implement this type of approach
and use these carbon recyclers,

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then we wouldn't have to remove
any more rainforests

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to make the food and the goods
that we consume.

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Because, at a large scale,

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you can actually make

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10,000 time more output per land area

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than you could, for instance,
if you used soybeans,

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if you planted soybeans
on that same are of land

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over a period of a year.

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Ten thousand times
over a period of a year.

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So this is what I mean

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by a new type of agriculture,

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and this is what I mean

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by developing a system

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that allows us to sustainably scale

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to meet the demands of 10 billion.

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And what would be the products

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of this new type of agriculture?

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Well, we've already made a protein meal,

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so you can imagine something
similar to a soybean meal,

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or even cornmeal, or wheat flour.

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We've already made oils,

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so you can imagine something similar to
coconut oil or olive oil or soybean oil.

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So this type of crop

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can actually produce the nutrients

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that would give us pasta and bread,

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cakes, nutritional items of many sorts.

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And furthermore, since oil

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is actually used to manufacture
multiple other goods,

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industrial products,
and consumer products,

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you can imagine being able to make
detergents, soaps, lotions, etc.

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using these types of crops.

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So not only are we running out space,

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but if we continue to operate
under the status quo

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with modern agriculture,

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we run the risk of robbing our progeny

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of a beautiful planet.

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But it doesn't have to be this way.

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We can imagine a future of abundance.

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Let us create systems that
keep planet Earth, our spaceship,

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not only from not crashing,

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but let us also develop systems
and ways of living

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that will be beneficial
to the lives of ourselves

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and the 10 billion that will be
on this planet by 2050.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)