Andrew Fox, with Locus Fermentation Solutions, sets up in the field to record data on a field of romaine lettuce and other vegetables at Rainbow Farms in Madison. Locus has developed a product to boost CO2 absorption in plants and increase their size and yield. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

MADISON, Ohio – Neat green rows of lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables rise in a small corner of Rainbow Farms.

Some may see the makings of a great salad here.

Others see the makings of a better world, a response to the problems of greenhouse gases and global warming.

This half-acre plot is a field trial for Rhizolizer, a combination of fermented microbes of fungus and bacteria that has been added to the soil.

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A Locus Agricultural Solutions photo at one of their test sites.

Replacing chemistry with biology

Rhizolizer was created by Locus Fermentation Solutions, of Solon, a firm dedicated to developing problem-solving products, some with the potential for worldwide impact.

The company says it operates under an environmentally sensitive philosophy it describes as “replacing chemistry with biology” in the oil and gas industries, and in agriculture.

Experts say the idea of improved agricultural products and practices to counter global warming has become popular in recent years, and part of a new wave of agricultural biotechnology.

(Locus Fermentation Solutions scientist once oversaw biological weapons program in Soviet Union, now works to develop products to help people.)

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Zankhana Thakkar, with Locus Fermentation Solutions, harvests romaine lettuce at Rainbow Farms. The company has developed a product to boost CO2 absorption in plants and increase their size and yield. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

Tackling global warming with a growing company

Rhizolizer, for example, was originally designed to increase the health, size and yield of irrigated crops. But those treated crops also absorb increased amounts of carbon dioxide (C02), as much as the equivalent of up to two cars’ annual carbon emissions per treated acre, according to company officials.

Excessive amounts of C02 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which trap heat radiating from the Earth, have been cited as a factor in global warming.

Locus Fermentation Solutions has grown during the past five years from 42 employees to 134, working at offices in Solon, Texas, Florida and California.

Read more: Scientist who supervised Soviet biological weapons production now develops products to help people

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Maja Milovanvic, a microbiologist, holds petri dishes containing Bacillus and Trichoderma strains used in Rhizolizer. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

Creating solutions to problems

The business started when Sean Farmer, a microbiologist and fermentation scientist, and Andy Lefkowitz, a corporate attorney and entrepreneur, met at a California synagogue.

Farmer was seeking someone to help with his business plan. Lefkowitz said he wasn't sure of the science or market potential, but after checking with experts, he was won over by the concept of a business "that could create solutions to problems that aren't being solved right now."

Lefkowitz moved the corporate offices of their California company, Ganeden, Biotech, which was founded in 1997, to Northeast Ohio. “I wanted to raise my children here, they had great schools here, and I’d grown up here [in Orange],” Lefkowitz said.

“We might have been the only biotech company to move from San Diego to Cleveland during that time period,” he joked.

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A Locus Bio-Energy Solutions crew prepares to apply an AssurEOR treatment at an oil well in the southwest United States. (Photo courtesy Locus Fermentation Solutions)

From farm to oil fields

Later, when Locus Fermentation Solutions was launched in 2014, its research and development efforts led to the concept of shipping live, refrigerated, concentrated microorganisms for products developed by one of the firm's operating companies, Locus Agricultural Solutions.

Another operating company, Locus Bio-Energy Solutions, works on products for the oil and gas industry.

One of its products liquifies paraffin in the oil at well sites, reducing equipment and pipeline clogging. And it has another benefit: “Environmentally, we’re replacing cancer-causing chemicals [previously used for that process],” Lefkowitz said.

“The very core of our business is replacing chemicals with non-GMO microorganisms [in agriculture] and their byproducts [for use in the oil and gas industry],” Lefkowitz said.

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Rods pulled from an untreated well and rods from a well treated with Locus Bio-Energy Solutions AssurEOR paraffin remediation and well bore cleaning treatment. (Photo courtesy Locus Fermentation Solutions)

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Locus Fermentation Solutions Chairman and CEO Andy Lefkowitz, who was named a 2019 regional Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernest & Young. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

A variety of challenges in agriculture

In agriculture, Lefkowitz said some of most significant issues include diseases crippling the citrus crop in the U.S., olive fields in Spain and Italy, the global banana crop, and coffee and cocoa crops in South America.

In tackling the citrus greening disease in Florida, Lefkowitz said that using Rhizolizer to create a more robust plant reduced the plants’ emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, resulting in a greater absorption of C02 from the atmosphere, transferring it into the soil, a process called carbon sequestration.

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Rhizolizer, an agricultural product developed by Locus Fermentation Solutions, sits in a refrigerated cooler at the company's headquarters. The company has developed the product to boost CO2 absorption in plants and increase their size and yield. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

Greening the world one lawn at a time

The product has been used on crops in Florida, Texas, California and several other states, and is now available in 40 states.

Ramboll Group A/S, a Danish consulting and engineering firm, verified Locus testing showing that after a year the soil of four different crops in three states treated with Rhizolizer had a higher organic carbon content than soil from untreated, control plots.

Lefkowitz said Locus is close to marketing a version of Rhizolizer for use on residential lawns. A similar product that they make, Terradigm, is already available for larger managed-turf areas like golf courses and sports complexes.

He said the residential product will “give homeowners an ability to make a difference themselves in climate change.”

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A member of the Locus Fermentation Solutions science team prepares a culture medium, the liquid in which the microorganisms grow before beginning the fermentation process. (Photo courtesy of Locus Fermentation Solutions)

Part of the solution

Larry Kopald, president of the Carbon Underground, a private group promoting climate change through regenerative agriculture, is familiar with the company and its products and said, "we look at a company like Locus as part of the solution.

“They’re not the only guys doing this, but they seem to be really smart, and I like that they’re talking a lot about carbon drawdown. Not everybody does that,” he said.

"Is it THE solution? No," said Larry Walker, co-editor of the Industrial Biotechnology journal and a member of the Locus scientific advisory board. "Is it an important part of the solution? Yes."

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Locus Fermentation Solutions has a team of more than 20 scientists specializing in microbiology and fermentation. (Photo courtesy Locus Fermentation Solutions)

Loading bulletproof data

However, finding possible solutions to problems in agriculture and the oil/gas industry is only half the battle.

"Right now, I'd say with the scientists we have, it's easier to come up with the solution than it is to convince people to use it," Lefkowitz said. "People don't like change. Industries don't like change."

Meeting that challenge requires coming up with what Lefkowitz described as “bulletproof data.”

“There’s an old saying: ‘In God we trust, everybody else bring data,’” he said.

In some cases, “we have the solution, we just don’t have the resources to collect the data to prove it to people,” Lefkowitz said.

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Andrew Fox, with Locus Fermentation Solutions, uses a caliper to measure the diameter of a romaine lettuce stem at Rainbow Farms. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

Trying new things

At the Locus test site at Rainbow Farms, co-owner Larry Klco said, “We’re always looking for new ways to do things.”

So when contacted about the testing by a Locus researcher who shopped at the farm, Klco said, “we thought this would be a great opportunity for them to have good, on-hand field test results, and a good opportunity for us to see what these products are doing.

“And if I have a step up on everybody else, that’s great, ‘cause that’s what I like to have,” he said.

“You know, there’s a lot of products out there and they say they’re the magic bullet,” Klco said. “Who knows? But what better place to have it tested than out here on the farm?

“We’re constantly trying new things,” he said. “They might work, and if they don’t, well, we don’t do it again.”

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A member of the Locus Agricultural Solutions field team works at a greenhouse trial location. (Photo courtesy Locus Fermentation Solutions)

To market, or not

He said Locus has developed a product to address the banana crop problem, and another to reduce excessive salt in agricultural soils near the Colorado River. But, "we have not brought them to market because we don't have the resources to do it," he said.

Lefkowitz said Locus will soon market its line of skin-care products, including a scar-repair formulation discovered by accident two years ago.

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Tim Alibek's accidental discovery led to a new product for skin scars. The lead fabricator at Locus Fermentation Solutions looks at his formerly scarred arm here. With him is his father, the company's senior vice president of research and development, Ken Alibek. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

An accidental discovery leads to treatment product

Tim Alibek, a lead fabricator at Locus Fermentation Solutions, had separated organic compounds in a fermenter, and later discovered something strange: The rough scar tissue from a large burn on his arm was flaking away, leaving his skin smooth.

He quickly told his father, Ken Alibek, executive vice president of research and development at the company, and that led to development of a scar-repair treatment.

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Flags mark plants treated with a product from Locus Fermentation Solutions at Rainbow Farms. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

Relying on hard work, not luck

But Lefkowitz said they aren’t relying on the kind of “eureka moment” that led to the scar product.

“They say the harder you work, the luckier you get,” he said. “We have that ah-ha moment, but there are benefits that are just the result of hard work.”

As for the distant future, Lefkowitz smiled and said, “We’ll continue to ferment, if you will.”

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