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Missouri Agtech Company Expands with New Seeds Company

  • December 10, 2019

Benson Hill, a fast-growing agtech firm, recently announced plans to expand with the launch of a new seed company in St. Louis, Missouri. The new business, called Benson Hill Seeds, focuses on providing soybean varieties for the human food and animal feed markets.

“Benson Hill’s crop design platform uses the most advanced traditional breeding and gene editing techniques to improve crop performance, nutrition profiles, and taste and texture characteristics,” said Matt Crisp, CEO and co-founder of Benson Hill. “As consumers demand greater focus on health and sustainability in food production, Benson Hill Seeds will deliver an expanded portfolio of soybean varieties with unique attributes that position growers to leverage those booming markets.”

Benson Hill was launched in 2012 to improve the photosynthetic efficiency of crops using a proprietary computational platform, CropOS™, that combines data analytics, machine learning and advanced crop genetics tools. Its success led to expansion of the platform to multiple crop targets and partnerships with dozens of organizations working to develop healthier and more sustainable food choices.

“Seed becomes one of the vessels in which we’re able to take that technology to market and provide that,” said Jeff Johnson, president of Benson Hill Seeds.

Benson Hill Seeds will offer the portfolio of eMerge, which produces high-yielding, high-protein non-GMO soybean varieties, as well as new products. The new company will have a focus on providing seeds with specialty output traits creating the opportunity to meet consumer demands for healthy and nutritious food.

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