Amid global concern over rising fertilizer costs, supply chain fragility, and environmental impact, Switch Bioworks advances field trials of a new generation of fertilizer produced by living microbes directly on plant roots
SAN CARLOS, Calif., June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Switch Bioworks, a biotechnology company focused on sustainable fertilizer, today announced the launch of field trials of its novel microbial fertilizer, with authorization from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Microbial fertilizers use living microbes to pull nitrogen from the air and deliver it to crops, offering farmers an alternative to traditional chemical fertilizers made from natural gas. Switch’s technology is a new-in-class solution that centers on a genetically encoded switch that solves a fundamental energy problem that has long limited the performance of microbial fertilizers.
The advanced R&D field trials are focused on the largest crop, corn, and take place across multiple agricultural sites in the U.S. Midwest. Data generated will help optimize the company’s Stanford-originated microbial discovery and engineering platform under real-world agricultural conditions.
Nitrogen fertilizer is essential to modern agriculture, but conventional production relies on fossil fuels and an unreliable supply chain, leaving farmers exposed when prices spike. Switch Bioworks replaces conventional fertilizer manufactured in chemical plants with natural microbes that have been precision-engineered to pull nitrogen directly from the air, convert it to ammonia, the active ingredient in fertilizer, and release it to crops right at the plant root. The product is designed to integrate with planting equipment and practices farmers already use, reducing adoption barriers.
The announcement comes amid growing alarm over rising fertilizer costs and dependence on globally concentrated supply chains. Recent federal action — including a Trump administration executive order targeting fertilizer and herbicide supply chains and the bipartisan Homegrown Fertilizer Act — reflects mounting recognition that domestic fertilizer supply has become a critical economic vulnerability.
“Securing regulatory approval for field trials is a major milestone for Switch Bioworks,” said Tim Schnabel, founder and CEO of Switch Bioworks. “Microbial fertilizer has long faced a fundamental biological challenge: microbes need energy to multiply on plant roots, and they need energy to produce fertilizer. It’s impossible to do both things at the same time – you cannot spend the same energy twice. Our approach is designed to let the microbes first establish themselves reliably on plant roots before switching into fertilizer production mode.”
The field trials will evaluate how consistently the Switch microbes establish on crop roots and activate nitrogen production under real agricultural conditions, helping the company optimize performance across genetic switch designs and microbial production hosts.
“Modern agriculture and our global food supply rest on a 100-year-old technology that’s polluting the planet and threatening global food security,” said Gareth Asten, General Partner at Acre Venture Partners. “Reinventing fertilizer is one of the most consequential problems of our time, and Switch is one of the few companies with a real shot at solving it. Field trials are a major milestone on that path.”
The trials also highlight growing federal and commercial interest in alternatives to conventional fertilizer amid concerns over supply chain resilience and agricultural input costs. Switch Bioworks has obtained approval for its field trials through established EPA and USDA biotechnology regulatory pathways that enable testing of advanced technologies while ensuring safety, aligning with federal R&D priorities to reduce input costs and strengthen domestic farm resilience.
Data from the field trials will support continued product development as Switch Bioworks advances a new generation of engineered microbial fertilizers toward commercialization, helping strengthen U.S. leadership in agriculture and biotechnology.
About Switch Bioworks
Switch Bioworks, the living fertilizer company, was founded out of Stanford University in 2022 and is headquartered in San Carlos, CA. The company engineers symbiotic microbes that colonize plant roots and switch on fertilizer production using cutting-edge, proprietary technology. Backed by leading investors and scientific advisors, Switch Bioworks is on a mission to drop the cost of fertilizer while improving outcomes for farmers and the planet—starting with nitrogen. Find out more at www.switchbioworks.com.
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SOURCE Switch Bioworks
