Ensuring the future of food, the constant weight of the food and agricultural industries, has always been at the core of Puris' mission.

Puris is not a start-up in the industry-it was launched in 1985 by Jerry Lorenzen through innovative non-GMO seed breeding-but its transformation into the company it is today began in 2014, and the company now launches the iconic Puris peas Protein products.

Puris' naturally cultivated yellow peas and other seeds are the foundation of its future. When consumers demand new and diverse foods, Puris answers with a series of organically grown plant ingredients made from peas, soybeans, lentils and corn. Puris provides pea protein to leading food brands in almost all categories.

The system started with American farmers.

Ryan Weeks cultivates in south central Nebraska, growing yellow corn, popcorn, white corn, peas, barley, wheat, sorghum and soybeans. Weeks is the fifth generation farmer in his family. He started to transform from traditional to organic farm in 2015. Now, about 80% of the entire operation of Weeks Family Farms is organic.

"Our family has always been used out of the box in our agriculture; we have always been early adopters of technology, no-tillage and other practices, but we have always been traditional corn and soybeans, so when I have a friend tell me We should think about it before, we didn't care about organic food," Weeks recalled. "After doing some research on my own, we decided to try it out on 240 acres of land."

Weeks said that the initial decision was based on financial conditions; he believes that organic production is a way to increase farm income. After the first year of success on this 240 acres of land, he realized that he really enjoyed the challenge of growing various crops, and the yield of these crops was comparable to that of traditional crops.

He has also established closer ties with consumers and neighboring organic farmers.

Even with this sense of satisfaction, one of the biggest challenges that Weeks and others face in the transition to organic farming is insurance.

In 2019, Weeks began to cooperate with Puris to plant 23 acres of peas. In order to buy insurance for the peas in his county, he can only buy hail insurance, and plans to negotiate with the insurance company after a few years of success.

But in 2021, Puris announced a private production coverage plan for contracted land to provide protection for farmers.

"The plan uses our region's production database to provide us with an affordable, basic, and multi-risk policy. This is the key, and we therefore expanded the acreage," Weeks said.

Jordan Atchison, President of Puris Grains, said that the program was launched in response to increased interest from growers in various regions of the United States who have no history of yellow pea crops.

If there is no history of crops, federal crop insurance will not apply, and farmers will not have a safety net.

"We found that if we can develop a plan to help new producers of yellow peas get out of the door and help them cover all inputs, then we can not only sign contracts with new producers in different fields," Acheson Say.

As the second year of the production coverage plan approaches, more growers can register and benefit from crop protection.

Giving farmers the opportunity to occupy the plant-based food market is another core value of Puris.

"As plant-based is becoming more common, farmers have different opportunities to grow chickpeas, lentils or different grains and legumes across the country, which they didn't have before," Acheson said.

Puris CEO Tyler Lorenzen, the son of founder Jerry Lorenzen, said that pea protein plays a vital role in the health of soil, humans and the planet. The Puris team continues to expand the supply chain to meet the needs of all stakeholders and has accepted Cargill's investment to further its work.

In August 2019, Cargill invested USD 75 million in the company to build a new peas processing plant in Dawson City, Minnesota.

"Cargill believes in our vision, our story and our future," Lorenzen said. "Their support helped us build a new facility that will make us the largest plant protein manufacturer in North America. Since the largest pea protein market is also here, this is important because we can buy more from farmers in each state. The peas."

From Weeks' perspective, feeding the world means adapting to different interests, experiences and demographics. "There are many people in this world, so if we can use pea protein or soy protein to make something that meets their dietary protein needs, and we can grow it on our farm, then we can make a profit and support the future."

The Food and Agricultural Research Foundation (FFAR) granted US$1.2 million to North Dakota State University in August. According to FFAR, protein accounts for 22% of current pea varieties, and additional research and experiments may result in an increase of 12%.

The NDSU research team led by Nonoy Bandillo will use genetic information to maximize breeding efficiency and accelerate the development of future pea varieties. Benson Hill, KeyGene, NDSU and Syngenta also provided funding for the grant.

Cargill and Ecolab teamed up with Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator to provide funding, guidance and contacts for early-stage startups to promote their rapid development.

Companies that accept accelerators provide solutions for the future of food and agriculture. Since its launch in 2017, more than 30 agricultural technology and food technology start-ups have participated in its investment plan, including:

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