Best Businessentrepreneurstartupleadershipcapitalism Podcasts (2025)

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There’s no Eighth Continent to Farm: Mike Grunwald on Feeding Ourselves without Frying the Planet 58:30

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1d ago58:30

58:30

In this episode, I’m joined by one of America’s most thoughtful national journalists: Mike Grunwald. You may know him from his work at Time, Politico, or The Washington Post, or from his critically acclaimed books about the Obama administration and the history of the Everglades. He’s also now a contributing columnist at the New York Times. But for …

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Trash into Treasure: ChainCraft Is Converting Food Waste into Sustainable Chemicals 38:47

17d ago38:47

38:47

What if we could turn the mountains of food waste we generate every day into high-value chemicals that replace fossil fuels and palm oil—two of the most environmentally destructive inputs in our economy? That’s exactly what this episode’s guest is doing. Marc den Hartog is the CEO of ChainCraft, a Dutch biotechnology company using fermentation to c…

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Unstoppable Entrepreneurs: Lori Rosenkopf on the Many Paths to Startup Success 37:32

1M ago37:32

37:32

This episode’s guest is someone who’s spent her career studying—and championing—entrepreneurs who don’t always fit the Silicon Valley mold. Dr. Lori Rosenkopf is the Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship at the Wharton School and the author of the new book Unstoppable Entrepreneurs: 7 Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value through Inno…

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The Crazy Rock Lady: How Eion is Turning Crushed Rocks into Climate Gold 39:41

2M ago39:41

39:41

You’ve heard of carbon capture machines, but what if one of the most powerful tools for removing CO₂ from the atmosphere isn’t high-tech at all—just crushed rock and rain? Meet Ana Pavlovic, CEO of Eion and the self-described “Crazy Rock Lady.” Her company is pioneering a process called enhanced rock weathering, which uses the natural properties of…

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Vedge of Glory: How Two Plant-Based Restaurateurs Have Survived for Decades 45:51

2M ago45:51

45:51

In the restaurant world, infant mortality is the norm. Nearly two-thirds of new eateries shut down in their first year. Only one in five lives to see its fifth birthday. So when a restaurant—not just any restaurant, but a plant-based fine-dining spot—thrives for decades, it’s not just impressive. It’s almost mythic. Enter Rich Landau and Kate Jacob…

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The Venture Capitalist Who Wants You to Donate More to Charity 50:11

3M ago50:11

50:11

Nick Cooney is one of the most prolific investors in food and ag tech. As the founder of Lever VC, he’s helped deploy nearly $80 million from his first fund and has now closed more than $50 million toward his second $100 million fund. He’s backed companies across the spectrum of sustainable protein—plant-based meat, cultivated meat, fermentation-de…

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No Palm, No Problem: Fermenting the Future of Fat 36:44

3M ago36:44

36:44

Palm oil is everywhere—from food to cosmetics to biofuels—but its production is a leading cause of deforestation, habitat destruction, and greenhouse gas emissions. What if we could have all the benefits of palm oil without the downsides? Enter NoPalm Ingredients, a Dutch biotech startup using fermentation to produce a sustainable alternative to pa…

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Turning Air Into Butter: Savor’s Revolutionary Approach to Alternative Fats 49:23

3M ago49:23

49:23

What if the fat in your butter, cheese, or even burger could be made without animals, without plants, without fermentation, and without agriculture at all? That’s exactly what Savor is doing. Using a groundbreaking process that transforms compounds like CO₂ and elements like hydrogen into rich, animal-free fats that can mimic what animal fat does, …

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Cleaner Air from Better Plants: The Neoplants Story 49:26

4M ago49:26

49:26

We spend about 90 percent of our lives indoors, yet the air inside our homes and offices is often far more polluted than the air outside. Volatile organic compounds—better known as VOCs—are constantly emitted by furniture, cleaning products, and even the very walls around us. Formaldehyde, benzene, toluene—these chemicals sound like something you’d…

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Helping Alt-Protein Startups Survive the Winter: Ahimsa’s Consolidation Approach 52:43

5M ago52:43

52:43

It’s no secret that the alternative protein startups are struggling these days. A combination of lower revenue, intense competition, and less available venture capital is leading to a contraction in the sector, with countless alt-meat and dairy companies conducting layoffs, declaring bankruptcy, and even folding altogether. Enter Ahimsa Companies, …

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Subtracting the Bean from Coffee: The Minus Story 33:31

5M ago33:31

33:31

Did you know that it takes 140 liters of water to make a single cup of coffee? Turns out that coffee, as far as plant crops are concerned, has a fairly heavy footprint on the planet. And it’s getting harder to farm, with climate change altering where and how many coffee beans can even be grown. You’ve heard of making meat without chickens, and milk…

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Can a Problem as Big as Climate Be Solved by a Solution as Small as a Microbe? 37:23

6M ago37:23

37:23

In this episode we’re diving deep into the fascinating world of carbon recycling with a trailblazer who’s reshaping how we think about waste and sustainability. Our guest is Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech—a company on a mission to transform our biggest environmental challenge into an economic opportunity. LanzaTech is pioneering a process …

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From Harvard Business School to Rural Africa: Nicole Poindexter’s Journey to Advance Clean Energy Access 35:29

6M ago35:29

35:29

In this episode we’re taking you on a journey to some of the most remote corners of West Africa, where energy access is scarce, and innovation is changing lives. Our guest is Nicole Poindexter, the founder and CEO of Energicity, a company that's bringing clean, reliable solar power to off-grid communities in countries like Sierra Leone, Benin, and …

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From Korea to the US: UNLIMEAT Puts its Signature on the Plant-Based Meat Movement 50:20

7M ago50:20

50:20

Most plant-based meats in the US have centered around American staples like hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and sausages. But there’s a world of meat consumption out there, and some of the most popular meat dishes are ones many Americans may have never even tried. In recent years, South Korea has seen great success exporting its culture arou…

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Bringing Clean Energy to African Businesses 37:00

7M ago37:00

37:00

Imagine trying to run a small business without a constant supply of energy. With electricity intermittency, you may not have access to wifi, a phone, a computer, a way to service your customers and more. One way to solve this problem is to have constant access to fossil fuels to run diesel generators, but this is an expensive and dirty way to opera…

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One Good Human: Eric Schulze on Cultivated Meat’s Past and Future 49:17

8M ago49:17

49:17

Eric Schulze loves the intersection of science and food so much that after many years as an FDA regulator, he decided in 2016 to leave the federal government to join the then-nascent Memphis Meats (now UPSIDE Foods). He’d go on to spend the next seven years working to advance the cultivated meat pioneer’s science, technology, communications, and ul…

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Chocolate without Cocoa Farming: The California Cultured Journey 41:05

8M ago41:05

41:05

We all know chocolate is sweet. The way that it’s made—not so much. From deforestation and climate change to child labor and heavy metal contamination, cocoa farming leaves a lot to be desired. But what if we could make cocoa powder without having to chop down the rainforest and engage in so many other unsavory practices? That’s what California Cul…

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Will Pets Be the First European Consumers of Cultivated Meat? Meatly is Betting on It 42:58

9M ago42:58

42:58

If you follow the world of cultivated meat, you probably know that a few companies have gotten historic regulatory approval and have sold some limited quantities of product both in the US and Singapore. But earlier this year, Meatly—a company founded only in 2021 and with just a few million British pounds in their pocket—succeeded in getting regula…

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Investing in an Animal-Free Food System: Milk & Honey Ventures 41:07

9M ago41:07

41:07

Around the time his son was born in 2011, Beni Nofech saw a video that changed his life. After listening to an argument about the need to move away from the view that animals are mere commodities for humanity to use however we like, Beni adopted a vegan diet and soon found himself attending animal movement and alt-protein conferences. From there, h…

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Can Bacteria Make Better Leather than Cows? Polybion Says So 53:34

10M ago53:34

53:34

You’ve heard of fruit leather, but what about making leather from fruit? Or more precisely, feeding fruit waste like mango pulp to bacteria which then convert those sugars into a leather-like material that can be useful for all types of purposes? That’s exactly what Polybion, a startup in Central Mexico, is doing. Co-founded in 2015 by two brothers…

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Are Chickpeas the Future of Alt-Protein? NuCicer is Working On It 47:55

10M ago47:55

47:55

Alt-meat today is typically made from soybeans, yellow peas, wheat, or some combination of those three crops. But there’s a whole world of plants out there, and maybe some of them can be harnessed to widen the world of ingredients available to manufacturers, perhaps even offering better functionality and flavor. One of the problems though, is that …

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Better than the Reel Thing: How Oshi is Redefining Seafood 47:32

11M ago47:32

47:32

Seafood consumption is going up around the world, including in the US, with salmon being the fish species Americans love to eat the most. (The only seafood Americans eat more is shrimp, who of course are crustaceans, not fish.) The biggest wave of alt-meat so far has focused on beef replacement like burgers and sausages, given how many consumers al…

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Turning the Tide on Fossil Fuels: Is Eco Wave Power the Future of Clean Energy? 41:25

11M ago41:25

41:25

Not everyone gets a second chance of life. But Inna Braverman got just that, and is using her second chance to try to solve one of humanity’s most pressing problems. Born in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Inna was only two weeks old when the nuclear disaster nearly took her life. When her mom found Inna blue and unresponsive from the pollution spewed from the…

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From Home-Made Smoothies to $200 million in Revenue: Daily Harvest’s Journey 46:15

12M ago46:15

46:15

Imagine thinking it would be a good idea to try to help people eat more fruits and vegetables, so you start making whole foods smoothies for your friends and family. Soon you’re selling them to more people than you personally know. Next thing you know, you’re running an all-vegan frozen meal company with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, …

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Novel Proteins for Pets: Omni is Helping Animal Lovers Feed Their Pets Fewer Animals 50:36

1y ago50:36

50:36

If America’s roughly 180 million meat-loving dogs and cats formed their own nation, they’d reportedly be the fifth biggest meat-consuming country in the world. As pet-keeping has exploded in the developed world, so too has demand for all the chickens, fish, pigs, and cows to feed those pets. There’s even been a trend toward human-grade meat in pet …

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Maisie Ganzler Dishes on When and How Corporate Animal Welfare Policies Work 51:33

1y ago51:33

51:33

Maisie Ganzler has never worked at an animal welfare charity nor an alt-protein company. Yet she’s in the upper echelon of effectiveness when it comes to reducing the suffering of farmed animals. That’s because she’s served as an executive of a national food management company supplying 1,000 schools and corporate dining facilities, Bon Appetit Man…

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Which Came First: The Chicken or the Potato? 36:21

1y ago36:21

36:21

Many listeners of this show will be familiar with precision fermentation, or turning microbes into factories to produce proteins like those proteins that have historically been produced inside of chickens and cows. Think of companies whose founders we’ve had on, like Perfect Day and The Every Company. But, what if instead of using microbes as prote…

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Premature Obituaries? Bruce Friedrich’s Optimism for Cultivated Meat 59:41

1y ago59:41

59:41

Upon reading his obituary, Mark Twain reportedly wrote that “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” Whether Twain actually wrote this or not, the reality remains that today the reports of the death of cultivated meat are indeed quite real. Yet Bruce Friedrich, the president of the Good Food Institute, is here to tell you that he believes…

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Defying the Odds: Orbillion Bio Raising Capital for Cultivated Meat in 2024 47:47

1y ago47:47

47:47

If you follow the cultivated meat sector, you know that the last couple years have been tough. Some companies have gone under, others have gone into hibernation, and others have shed staff in cash-conserving layoffs. Major publications have published opinion column obituaries for this industry, yet the work goes on. Part of that work is that of Obi…

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The Past, Present, and Future of Cultivated Meat with UPSIDE Foods’ Uma Valeti 55:05

1y ago55:05

55:05

No cultivated meat company has raised more capital than UPSIDE Foods. In 2022, after having already raised about $200 million in previous rounds, the company raised another $400 million in a Series C round with a company valuation north of the coveted $1 billion unicorn status. No company in the space has garnered more media attention, both positiv…

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Fishing for Progress in Asia: Avant Meats 37:06

1y ago37:06

37:06

Asia is leading the world when it comes to semiconductors, solar panels, wind turbines, and other technologies critical for the future. In a time when several US states are seeking to ban the sale of cultivated meat, Asia seems to be leaning into the technology, and one of the most mature companies in the space there is Avant Meats. Founded in Hong…

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Fishing for High-Margins in Cultivated Seafood: BlueNalu’s Path to Scale 42:49

1y ago42:49

42:49

BlueNalu is one of the better-funded companies when it comes to cultivated meat. Having raised more than $100 million, including about $35 million toward the end of 2023—a notoriously difficult time to fundraise—their founder and CEO Lou Cooperhouse is optimistic about their path to success. But as you’ll hear in this episode, Lou isn’t working to …

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Is the Future of Cultivated Meat in Thailand? Aleph Farms is Betting on It 33:10

1y ago33:10

33:10

When you think about cultivated meat, Thailand isn’t exactly the first country that comes to mind. Sure, you may think about the US, Netherlands, Israel, and Singapore. But the Southeast Asian kingdom is where Israeli cultivated meat juggernaut Aleph Farms recently announced its first commercial factory will be. Having just received Israel’s first …

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Flying Cars or Electric Cars? Isha Datar’s Thoughts on Where Cultivated Meat Tech Stands Today 42:27

1y ago42:27

42:27

When the New York Times recently ran an opinion column declaring the infant fatality of the cultivated meat industry, Isha Datar, CEO of New Harvest, was quoted as saying of the sector, “this is a bubble that is going to pop.” Given that New Harvest is intended to promote and advance the field, what did Isha mean by this? She expounded on that thou…

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Mark Post, A Decade After the First Cultivated Burger 39:42

1+ y ago39:42

39:42

In 2013, Dr. Mark Post shocked the world when he debuted the world’s first-ever burger grown from animal cells. Weighing in as a quarter-pounder, the burger carried a price tag of a mere $330,000—all of which was funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin. A decade later, what does Mark think about the movement and the industry he helped birth? When h…

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Are Smaller Cultivators the Answer for Cultivated Meat’s Success? Niya Gupta Thinks So 34:15

1+ y ago34:15

34:15

Some of the companies in the cultivated meat space are betting that massive stainless steel cultivators—think 100,000L to 250,000L—are the path to commercialization. Niya Gupta, CEO of Fork and Good, is thinking smaller. She argues that there may be a more realistic path using a larger number of smaller tanks, void of the impellers that agitate the…

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Josh Tetrick on the Future of the Cultivated Meat Movement 33:07

1+ y ago33:07

33:07

If you listened to the last episode, you already know that there’s an updated paperback edition of my book Clean Meat that’s coming out April 9, 2024. I announced in that episode that, aligning with that release, this show will be devoted for a couple months exclusively to interviews with leaders in the cultivated meat space, many of whom are profi…

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Brief thoughts on the alt-meat movement and my role in it 12:02

1+ y ago12:02

12:02

I’m excited to announce in this short new podcast episode that there’s a new, updated, paperback edition of my book Clean Meat that’s coming out on April 9, 2024. Published by Simon and Schuster’s Gallery Books, the new Clean Meat is now available for preorder everywhere books are sold. Aligning with this new edition release, for the next couple mo…

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Incubating Tomorrow’s Alt-Protein Unicorns: The Kitchen 51:26

1+ y ago51:26

51:26

If you’ve spent any time in the startup ecosystem, you start realizing pretty quickly that the US isn’t alone in producing a lot of startups, but that there are some very small countries, like Israel and Singapore, that consistently punch above their weight when it comes to new company creation. In fact, Israel is often known as the startup nation,…

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When Nonprofits Start Businesses: Garden for Wildlife and the National Wildlife Federation 1:03:17

1+ y ago1:03:17

1:03:17

Most startups are founded by entrepreneurs hopeful that their idea will be the next big thing and pad their bank accounts in the process. Yet sometimes companies are started not by enterprising capitalists, but rather by a far less likely progenitor: nonprofit charities. That’s exactly what happened when the nonprofit National Wildlife Federation d…

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Can Tech Improve Farm Animals’ Lives? Robert Yaman Is Betting On It 59:32

1+ y ago59:32

59:32

Many times when we talk about technology that can improve animal welfare, we’re talking about innovations that either have displaced or could displace the use of animals. Think for example about cars replacing horse-power, kerosene replacing whale oil, and animal-free meats displacing factory farming of animals. But can technology also be used to m…

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Making Alt-Meat Research More Intelligent: GreenProtein AI & Noa Weiss 48:48

1+ y ago48:48

48:48

Predictions abound for industries that allegedly will be upended by artificial intelligence, or AI. Will Uber drivers and truck drivers be replaced by AI-powered self-driving vehicles? Will writers and journalists be displaced by ChatGPT and its competitors? While many of our physical tasks have now been replaced by machines, it’s possible that in …

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Building a Better Chew: Chef GW Chew is Working to Create Better Plant-Based Meat 48:25

1+ y ago48:25

48:25

As a young man, GW Chew saw his family dying early of lifestyle-related diseases, and he thought maybe he could do something about it. With a last name like that—yes, “Chew” is his real last name—maybe GW was destined to become a chef—that’s exactly what he did. Because of his interest in Seventh Day Adventism, GW gradually became Chef Chew by expe…

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Making All Births Intended and Wanted: Cadence OTC and Samantha Miller 39:38

1+ y ago39:38

39:38

Did you know that nearly half of all pregnancies in America are unintended? And that percentage skyrockets when we’re talking about teen pregnancies, more than three-quarters of which are unintended. While teen pregnancies and teen births are thankfully at an all-time low in the US, we’re still behind countries like the UK and Canada in this regard…

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Power Walking for Cleaner Energy: The Pavegen Story 45:51

1+ y ago45:51

45:51

Every time you take a step, you’re creating energy. Sadly, that energy isn’t captured and used to power your daily life. But what if it could be? That’s exactly what Pavegen is doing. What started as a guy tinkering in his room to make tiles that generate electricity when depressed is now a multimillion dollar startup with flooring installations in…

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Robots as a Service to Turn the Tides for Our Oceans: The Reefgen Story 32:04

1+ y ago32:04

32:04

You probably already know why coral reefs are so important—after all, they’re home to a quarter of all marine life. But do you know about seagrass? Seagrass not only provides habitat for aquatic wildlife, but it accounts for 10% of oceanic carbon storage, despite only taking up less than one percent of the seafloor. It also produces oxygen, cleans …

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From Food Bank to Making Bank on Food Influencing: Maxime Sigouin and Fit Vegan Coaching 46:17

1+ y ago46:17

46:17

Maxime Sigouin was on the verge of homelessness, surviving on free meals from his local food bank. After getting laid off from work and having only about $30 in his bank account, Maxime struggled to figure out how he could afford to survive, let alone try to help his partner as she endured her own mentally and financially taxing fight with cancer. …

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Cementing a Better Future: Leah Ellis and Sublime Systems 46:43

2y ago46:43

46:43

Did you know that nearly 10 percent of all CO2 emissions come from the creation of cement alone? That’s more than from all aviation! We rarely think about cement despite the fact that our society would literally collapse without it. Roads, bridges, buildings, and more all depend on this material that’s so ubiquitous we barely even notice it. In fac…

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The Most Successful Plant-Based Meat Entrepreneur Ever? Yves Potvin’s Konscious Foods 57:01

2y ago57:01

57:01

Nearly all startups fail. Often even founders with a successful exit under their belts have stories of entrepreneurial strikeouts prior to or after their home run. But every once in while there’s a founder who seems to have the Midas touch who just keeps winning. No, I’m not talking here about Elon Musk. Rather, I’m talking about Yves Potvin. The c…

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Microbes to the Rescue: Lisa Nunez Safarian and Pivot Bio 35:56

2y ago35:56

35:56

A big part of what keeps you alive—among other things—is nitrogen. The plants you eat need it to grow, so for centuries farmers have been applying it to soil to make their acreage more productive. Prior to the 20th century, nitrogen fertilizer used to come from animal feces, blood, and bones—which is still common in organic agriculture today—but mo…