The Salk Institute received $18 million from the Bezos Earth Fund to move its carbon-focused crop research from the lab to real farm fields. The three-year ROOTS project will test whether soybean plants engineered for deeper, stronger roots can store more carbon in soil and better withstand drought and disease. This builds on an earlier $30 million grant, bringing total Bezos Earth Fund support to $48 million. Researchers will use an AI platform called RootGPT to speed up trait identification, then run multi-year field trials in the Midwest to measure actual soil carbon changes. The goal is to see if these soybeans can remove 1-2 metric tons of CO2 per hectare per year without sacrificing yield. The project also involves a commercial spinout, Cquesta, to bring successful traits to market. If field trials confirm the carbon storage potential, these root traits could later be applied to other staple crops like maize, rice, and wheat. The project represents a practical test of whether agriculture can become a reliable carbon removal technology while supporting farmers.
