Vive Crop Protection (Mississauga, ON) is an agri-tech company making cutting-edge crop protection products including fungicides and insecticides.

What they’re doing: Vive is creating a precision pesticide that targets the genes of specific pests doing damage to crops but is harmless to all other species.

How will this be used in the real world? The agriculture industry is trying to move away from synthetic pesticides and Vive Crop is there to fill the void with their biopesticide that targets only specific pests. Having that kind of accuracy and with no damage to other species (including humans!), this will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agriculture sector and costs to farmers who will need less pesticide.

SymBL Innovations (Toronto, ON) is engineering microbial communities to upcycle waste into ingredients for food, supplements and healthcare treatments.

What they’re doing: SymBL upcycles dairy sidestreams into octanoic acid, an antimicrobial and flavouring ingredient usually made from imported palm kernel oil. They’re also testing it as an ingredient for crop protection products in the agricultural sector.

How will this be used in the real world? For every three litres of milk processed into Greek yogurt, nearly two litres of acid whey is left behind. Instead of going to waste, SymBL is taking those leftovers to create food and bioherbicide ingredients that are produced in Canada, strengthening the country’s supply chain in a sustainable way.

Performance Plants (Kingston, ON) is using genetic engineering to produce climate change-resistant crops.

What they’re doing: Performance Plants is developing high yielding varieties of canola that are drought and heat resistant and capture more carbon from the atmosphere.

How will this be used in the real world? Canada is the biggest canola producer in the world, generating over $40 billion a year, but climate change is threatening that. Performance Plants is working to grow production with a heartier version of canola that can withstand drastic weather changes.

Lucent Biosciences (Coquitlam, BC) is a micronutrient fertilizer company that upcycles food waste into various products for the agriculture industry.

What they’re doing: Lucent is developing a sustainable and controlled-release nitrogen fertilizer to help crops absorb nutrients better and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fertilizer runoff into water systems.

How will this be used in the real world? Current fertilizers are leaving crops hungry with plants absorbing only as much as 35% of nitrogen. Lucent’s biodegradable and microplastic-free fertilizer ingredient ensures a slow release of nitrogen to give crops the nutrients they need, when they need them, preventing harvest loss.

Launch Bioindustries (Toronto, ON) is a biotech company fermenting microbes to create compostable bioplastics, coatings and films.

What they’re doing: Launch is focused on scaling production of their sustainably produced microbes that transform dairy sidestreams into a key ingredient for biodegradable plastics.

How will this be used in the real world? By upcycling acid whey, a by-product of yoghurt production, Launch is offering plastics manufacturers a sustainable and compostable substitute to petroleum-based plastics ingredients. Diverting the dairy sidestreams also means municipalities won’t have the environmental and financial burden of processing it out of the local water supply.

Chinova Bioworks (Fredericton, NB) is a biotech company upcycling mushroom waste to create a natural preservative for the food and beverage industry.

What they’re doing: Chitosan is a crustacean-based preservative used for decades, but Chinova has created a far more environmentally friendly way of producing the same preservative by upcycling mushroom stems.

How will this be used in the real world? Chinova has already perfected turning mushroom stumps into a low-carbon, sustainable version of chitosan. Now they’re working on scaling the process to better supply the food and beverage, cosmetics and personal care products sectors, and diverting thousands of tons of mushroom waste from Canadian landfills.

B.Nature Biotech (Saskatoon, SK) is a biotech company using microbes to revolutionize composting.

What they’re doing: The Prairies are an enormous crop producer for the country, but soil in those western provinces is low in phosphorus, which is needed to increase crop yields. B.Nature is upcycling food waste and Canadian rock phosphate into a phosphate-enhanced biofertilizer and tracking its effectiveness on Cowessess First Nation agricultural test plots.

How will this be used in the real world? Given recent geopolitical impacts on supply chains, especially synthetic fertilizers, B.Nature is looking to remove the need for importing altogether with their natural phosphate-enhanced biofertilizer made in Canada for Canadian farmers.

ALT TEX (Toronto, ON) is a biotech company creating biodegradable fabrics for the fashion industry.

What they’re doing: n order to create sustainable yarns and fabrics, you first need reliable biofibers. ALT TEX is engineering microbial strains to handle whatever impurities and varieties are in the food waste they use to upcycle into biodegradable fabrics, ensuring efficient and consistent production.

How will this be used in the real world? Every year, over four million tons of food waste goes into Canadian landfills. ALT TEX is helping to divert some of that by turning potato peels destined for the garbage into a valuable polyester alternative. Using biodegradable fabrics like this also shrinks the massive carbon footprint of the fashion industry.

ABAzyne Bioscience (Saskatoon, SK) is a biotech company modernizing cold weather crop protection.

What they’re doing: ABAzyne has developed a treatment featuring a naturally occurring plant hormone that gives crops an extra level of protection during unexpected cold snaps and frost.

How will this be used in the real world? Drastic temperature changes are happening more often, but farmers now have a new tool to weather the storm. ABAzyne’s crop spray boosts the cold and frost tolerance of wine grapes and tender fruit trees, preventing expensive crop loss and farmers’ need for fuel-intensive frost-protection equipment.