At a research field in Urbana, Ill., research scientist Ashish Rajurkar of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies knelt in the dirt and lifted a large clod of soil tangled around a soybean plant, while an $18 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund bankrolls the work to build deeper-rooted soybeans that can store more carbon underground and survive drought.
Who Gets to Engineer the Food Supply
Wolfgang Busch, director of the institute’s Harnessing Plants Initiative, said, “We are actually steering in a direction that is very concerning.” He added, “It will become harder to grow enough food for enough people.” That’s the backdrop for this project: climate stress, shrinking margins, and a research apparatus trying to patch over a system already straining ordinary people who depend on food that grows in soil, not in press releases.
Busch said the project is testing whether deeper root systems can help crops withstand climate change while drawing more carbon from the atmosphere and storing it underground. The pitch is simple enough. Make the roots go down farther. Keep more carbon buried. Hope the fields hold up when the weather turns hostile.
The Lab, the Genes, the Field
Scientists at the Salk Institute have spent the last six years uncovering the genetic information of hundreds of versions of common row crop plants such as soybeans and sorghum from around the world, creating an “encyclopedia” of plant genomes, said Todd Michael, a research professor at the institute. After identifying 347 genes related to carbon storage and root growth, scientists were able to edit the plants’ DNA and create ones with roots that penetrate the soil further down.
Michael said, “We wanted to leverage the natural variation of a given plant.” He added, “We just have to be able to make the right crosses to bring in those genetics.” The language is tidy, but the stakes are blunt. The people doing the work are trying to remake crops so they can survive the damage already baked into industrial agriculture and climate collapse.
During droughts, the researchers hope the roots will allow plants to access water below the top layer of soil while also storing carbon farther underground, where it may be less vulnerable to being released when farmers till their fields. The project also aims to boost carbon storage by growing larger root systems so more carbon-rich plant material is left in the soil, and by increasing suberin, a cork-like substance in roots that contains carbon and decomposes more slowly than many other plant tissues.
They hypothesize that more steeply shaped root systems may also allow farmers to plant more crops in a smaller area, potentially increasing yield. Salk scientists think longer, bigger roots could also absorb more nitrogen and other fertilizer runoff, which can cause algae blooms and lead to low-oxygen environments that kill marine life.
What the Institutions Call a Solution
At one of the field sites at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Salk is growing deep-rooted soybean plants under a canopy that can open and close to control the amount of rainfall plants receive, testing how the plants perform in drought conditions. Using underground cameras and sensing equipment, research partners at the university can track the amount of carbon in the soil and view the root structure’s growth in real time. The project also includes field sites in Missouri, Kansas and Iowa.
Busch said there is still uncertainty about how these plants will perform outside a lab. He said, “we don't really know what the real trade-off is.” He added, “You have to test it in the field.” Initial results from the field are expected this fall, Busch said.
Based on earlier lab results, Salk researchers estimate one hectare, or 2.5 acres, of deeper- and bigger-rooted soybean plants could store an additional metric ton of carbon dioxide per year. How long that carbon stays stored depends on how deep the roots can grow and the surrounding environment in the soil.
A 2025 study that Busch co-authored modeled that about a gigaton of carbon dioxide per year could be removed from the atmosphere by 2040 if deeper-rooted soybean, corn, cotton and canola crops were adopted in countries where genetically-modified crops are already grown. The study said deeper-rooted crops could be planted on current farm fields using existing agricultural infrastructure and land.
Who Controls Adoption
Busch acknowledged that getting new seed technology into farmers’ fields can be difficult. He said companies and farmers adopted herbicide-resistant crops in less than a decade once the technology was introduced. “Historically it’s clear, if you have a technology that is interesting to a big seed company, it will go out there very, very fast,” he said.
Andrew Bovarnik, head of global food systems for the United Nations Development Programme, cautioned that new crop technologies can take longer to implement than researchers expect. He said farmers’ decisions are shaped not only by what happens on their fields, but also by seed companies, commodity buyers, government subsidies, trade rules and access to financing. “There’s a sense that if you innovate and come up with a good idea, then boom, it can happen,” Bovarnik said. “But it tends not to. We are stuck in a system that is pretty entrenched.”
Bovarnik said farmers are also reluctant to take risks on unfamiliar crops, particularly without evidence they won’t bring unintended problems such as greater susceptibility to disease or heat. He said subsidies and other incentives could help speed adoption, but even if deeper-rooted crops prove useful, their impact will depend on how land is used, how soils are managed and whether crops such as soy are being grown for the most efficient or beneficial purposes. “Always keep looking at that bigger strategic, systemic lens to food,” he said, “not just the end-of-pipe innovation.”
Busch said crop and seed development can take years and that ambitious solutions require fast funding. “It’s a race against time,” he said of climate change. “We are racing against limiting the damage and crossing tipping points, where it’s much harder to return from.” The race, as ever, is being run inside a system where seed companies, subsidies, trade rules and financing shape what gets planted, while the people who eat the food are left to live with the consequences.