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Talk11 min

The tiny organisms transforming farming

Karsten Temme · TED

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About

What if the solution to feeding humanity has been hiding in the soil for millions of years? Bioengineer Karsten Temme discovered a remarkable answer to this question: for eons, crops relied on soil microbes to convert atmospheric nitrogen into food — until modern farming severed that ancient partnership. He shows how we can reawaken those dormant microbes using gene editing, creating “living fertilizer” that delivers nutrients to crops in real time and transforms farms around the world.

The talk

  1. The tiny organisms transforming farming 11 min · TED's player

Credits and licence

Institution
TED
Department
TED Countdown Summit 2025
Speaker
Karsten Temme
Year
2025
Level
For everyone
Language
English
Subjects
Biology, Earth and environment
Source
TED
Licence
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, as TED states it. Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions. TED's terms
Attribution
TED Talks are licensed by TED under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International and are shown here in TED's own player, as TED's usage policy asks.
Who can watch
TED gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from what the source says about it. How courses are placed