Startups sought for $170,000 Soy Innovation Challenge | The Fish Site

Called the Soy Innovation Challenge, it is the brainchild of The United Soybean Board (USB) and The Yield Lab Institute (YLI).

“Soybean oil demand is increasing as a feedstock for renewable energy, creating unique opportunities for soybean farmers. But an increase in expanded crush for oil means higher meal supply. With US soybean meal’s strong reputation as a high value product, additional pathways are necessary to advance consumption both domestically and internationally,” said Ralph Lott, USB chair and farmer from New York, in a press release.

The Soy Innovation Challenge aims to enhance the value of soybean meal in existing markets and uses by targeting:

“With clear sustainability differentiators, such as soil health and land stewardship, this competition has the potential to create unique revenue streams for US soybean farmers in meeting customers’ evolving preferences,” said Mac Marshall, USB vice president of market intelligence. “Sustainability is the future of our industry, and these new innovations will enhance the profit opportunities for our farmers.”

Soybean meal is used as a feed ingredient for animal agriculture. These markets are limited by demand constraints of poultry and livestock volume, competition from alternative ingredients, storage capacity and transportation challenges. The Soy Innovation Challenge aims to solve these problems.

The application period is open until 6 December. USB and YLI invite ag-tech startups, project/research teams and groups to submit applications online. This includes entities that operate in the soybean meal value chain and have an innovative solution that can enhance known uses and markets of soybean meal. The challenge is sponsored by USB and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The selected teams will compete for: