Corteva Agriscience Collaborates with Ginkgo Bioworks to Bolster Crop Protection

Corteva will leverage Ginkgo's synthetic biology platform to develop sustainable crop protection solutions, addressing food insecurity and growing pest resistance challenges

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Ginkgo Bioworks

Apr 01, 2021, 09:00 ET

INDIANAPOLIS and BOSTON, April 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Corteva Agriscience LLC (NYSE: CTVA), a leading pure-play agriculture company, and Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. ("Ginkgo") the organism company, announced today that they have entered into a multi-year agreement to apply the power of synthetic biology to design innovative crop protection technologies. This collaboration combines Corteva's deep knowledge of natural product discovery and agricultural expertise with Ginkgo's extensive cell engineering platform and DNA codebase to explore the next generation of naturally-inspired sustainable solutions. Ultimately, this collaboration aims to provide farmers with new solutions to combat invasive pests and evolving resistance challenges.

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that 20 to 40% of global crop production is lost to pests annually. Consequently, plant diseases and invasive insects/weeds cost the global economy billions of dollars. Novel natural products and their inspired analogs have tremendous potential to provide sustainable options for farmers to protect crop yield. By working with Ginkgo, Corteva will accelerate the discovery and optimization of complex natural products through synthetic biology.

"Sustainable food and agriculture systems are critical to the growing population," said Sam Eathington, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Corteva Agriscience. "As leaders in natural product development, we are committed to solving the challenges facing farmers sustainably through innovation. We are excited to collaborate with Ginkgo Bioworks to discover, optimize and scale groundbreaking, naturally-inspired crop protection solutions."

Companies across numerous industries use Ginkgo's cell programming platform to find better, more sustainable ways to create products, including food ingredients, fragrances, cosmetics, medicines, and more. By enabling the design of organisms that can produce valuable biological products, Ginkgo helps accelerate the development of innovative, bio-based solutions to the world's most pressing environmental challenges.

"At Ginkgo, we fundamentally believe that biology is the best technology on the planet because it can move more rapidly and efficiently than traditional approaches with less impact on the environment," said Jason Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. "Food loss is a significant issue impacting so many communities around the world, and we're excited to see what Ginkgo and Corteva can accomplish together to advance novel, environmentally sustainable, biological solutions to protect crops around the world."

About Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc.
Headquartered in Boston, Ginkgo uses the most advanced technology on the planet—biology—to grow better products. The company's cell programming platform is enabling the growth of biotechnology across diverse markets, from food to fragrance to pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo is also actively supporting a number of COVID-19 response efforts, including community testing, epidemiological tracing, vaccine development and therapeutics discovery. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com.

About Corteva Agriscience
Corteva Agriscience is a publicly traded, global pure-play agriculture company that provides farmers around the world with the most complete portfolio in the industry - including a balanced and diverse mix of seed, crop protection and digital solutions focused on maximizing productivity to enhance yield and profitability. With some of the most recognized brands in agriculture and an industry-leading product and technology pipeline well positioned to drive growth, the company is committed to working with stakeholders throughout the food system as it fulfills its promise to enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for generations to come. Corteva Agriscience became an independent public company on June 1, 2019 and was previously the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont. More information can be found at www.corteva.com.

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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks