Improved Processing Efficiency

Food processing often requires a significant amount of energy to manufacture the final processed product. One of the primary reasons is that some frequently processed foods-such as tomatoes, which are more than 90 percent water-are low in solids and high in water. Tomato processors use enormous amounts of energy to boil away the water in tomatoes in order to achieve the right consistency for products such as tomato paste and pasta sauce.

In 2003, nearly 11 million tons of tomatoes were grown in the United States for processing purposes. United States Department of Agriculture forecasts suggest that growers will produce more than 14 million tons of processing tomatoes by 2010. Tomato crops are typically irrigated, so more tomatoes means more acres and more water used for irrigation-water that will largely become wastewater during subsequent tomato processing.

The net effect is that fresh water is used to produce tomatoes, which are then trucked to processing plants where most of the water is either flushed or boiled away.

Our Solution

Arcadia Biosciences is using TILLING® technology, an advanced breeding tool, to develop processing tomato varieties that are naturally higher in solids than conventional varieties. When commercialized, these varieties can meet the needs of farmers and processors while using less land, water and energy.

Reducing Nitrogen
Usage

Arcadia Biosciences has conducted field trials in five growing seasons. In each field trial, Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) canola demonstrated that it can achieve high yields using significantly less nitrogen fertilizer than conventional varieties. In the chart above, note that NUE canola yielded 2800 lb/ac using two-thirds less nitrogen fertilizer than the conventional variety needed to generate the same yield.