One “What If?” Question Is Changing the Future of Farming

A simple question—what if?—combined with powerful new technologies, is helping reshape one of humanity’s oldest industries: agriculture.

Dave Friedberg, founder and CEO of Ohalo Genetics.

David Friedberg, founder and CEO of Ohalo Genetics, began thinking about the slow pace of crop improvement, particularly in potatoes. Farmers had long faced a frustrating reality: developing a new potato variety could take 10 years or more.

That challenge led Friedberg to ask a bold question: What if the way potatoes reproduce could be changed to speed up breeding?

After five years of research, his company found a way to do just that, creating a breakthrough that could significantly alter how potatoes are grown—and possibly influence the price consumers pay for food.

Rethinking how potatoes grow

Traditionally, potatoes are not planted from seeds like most crops. Instead, farmers plant tubers—pieces of potatoes that sprout and grow into identical copies of the parent plant. This method ensures consistency in flavor, size, color, and disease resistance.

However, growing potatoes from actual seeds has long been difficult because the seeds randomly mix genes from both parent plants. The resulting plants often produce potatoes with unpredictable qualities, making them unsuitable for commercial farming.

Friedberg and his team wanted to create seeds that reliably produce plants with the best traits from both parents. Such seeds would also be easier to transport and store than bulky tubers.

Using advanced tools such as CRISPR gene-editing technology and specialized proteins, researchers developed a way to switch off the natural process that shuffles genes during reproduction. As a result, the hybrid seeds inherit the desirable traits of both parent plants without the usual genetic randomness.

Artificial intelligence and computational modeling played a major role in the process. These tools helped scientists design proteins and predict how the plants would respond, dramatically reducing breeding timelines.

What once took a decade or more can now be achieved in 2 to 3 years.

Bigger harvests, healthier plants

Early trials of the new seeds have delivered impressive results. In some cases, crops grown from seeds produced yields 50 to 100 percent higher than those from traditional methods.

The improvement comes partly because the seeds avoid diseases often carried by old tubers. The plants also tend to grow stronger from the start.

The technology, called Boosted Breeding™, differs from traditional genetically modified crops. No foreign DNA from unrelated species is inserted. Instead, the process works with the plant’s own genetics to unlock desirable traits.

What it could mean for grocery prices

Beyond improving farming efficiency, the technology could eventually affect food prices.

For example, potato farmers currently lose up to 20 cents of every dollar to the cost and disease risks associated with planting seed tubers. True potato seeds could eliminate much of that expense, while the higher yields would allow farmers to grow far more potatoes on the same land.

Ohalo is also working on other crops, including strawberries and almonds. The company has already developed a self-fertile almond variety that eliminates the need for pollinator trees, potentially cutting growers’ operating costs by more than 30 percent.

Lower production costs in major crops can gradually influence wholesale markets and, eventually, retail prices.

However, experts note that an important variable is seed pricing. If licensing fees for the new seeds absorb most of the efficiency gains—as has happened with some agricultural technologies—farmers may benefit while consumers see little change at the checkout counter.

Even so, advances like Boosted Breeding could slowly reshape agriculture.

Rather than immediate price drops, the shift may appear as gradual downward pressure on food costs over time, similar to how advances in solar technology slowly reduced electricity prices.

What began as a single “what if” question may end up influencing how crops are grown and what families pay for food in the years ahead.