Agricultural biocatalysis: From waste stream to food and feed additives

Climate change and environmental pollution constitute two of the most impactful obstacles for humanity. Among other economies, agriculture heavily contributes to both these developments. Therefore, climate and environmental positive advances in agricultural practices are indispensable. Monoculture and high use of fertilizers and pesticides pose lasting damage to the surrounding ecosystem. Feeds utilized in animal farming often are poor in quality and nutritional values, which results in high amounts of feed being wasted to cover the basic nutrition of farm animals and additionally increasing greenhouse gas emissions. To circumvent these side effects, two approaches gain growing interest. First, land use must become more efficient increasing the efficiency of production per area. One way to accomplish this feat might be the introduction of a three-dimensional approach to land utilization by using enzymatic and fermentative approaches. This strategy would enable the usage of agricultural waste streams (e.g., wheat bran [WB]) and their transformation to higher-value products like functional feed additives, such as amino acids and carotenoids. Second, those feed additives could be used to increase feed quality and reduce the amount of feed needed for appropriate nutrition of target animal, as well as reducing the greenhouse gas emission by animal rearing in general.