Acadian Plant Health Continues to Deliver Innovative Biostimulant Solutions
12 July 2022 Headquartered in eastern Canada, Acadian Plant Health has staff in 15 countries and sales in more than 80 countries around the world. The company utilizes seaweed extracts – specifically those derived from Ascophyllum nodosum marine plants – to optimize plant growth, from root development to post-harvest, by improving plant establishment, abiotic stress resistance, and nutrition in plants. Agribusiness Global interviewed David Hiltz, co-chair of the Biostimulant Innovation Committee at the Biological Products Industry Alliance (BPIA) and the Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at Acadian Plant Health, to learn how Acadian is advancing the case for biostimulants.
ABG: Acadian Plant Health has been focused on biostimulants for many decades. What role do the company’s products play in agriculture?
DH: We produce products that are derived from seaweed and marine algae for a variety of applications — animal feed, human nutrition, and more importantly, for use in commercial agriculture. And the use of seaweed in agriculture has gone on for literally hundreds, if not thousands, of years. They used to be used more as soil amendments, but in the last 60 years, companies like Acadian have been making extracts of these various seaweeds and using them as either foliar sprays or through irrigation as a way to help plants grow better.
ABG: Where do these products fit into the world of crop inputs?
David Hiltz, Director of Global Regulatory Affairs at Acadian Plant Health.
DH: There was never any clear pathway as to how products like our product fit into the global regulatory scheme for agrochemicals. Typically, when you talk about crop inputs, you have fertilizer products that are directly feeding the plant with nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, or micronutrients. On the other side, you have agrochemical products that are designed to help plants overcome pests and diseases – fungicides, pesticides, and insecticides.
And in the middle, you had this category of products that was designed to be used with both of these pillars of agricultural inputs. But they aren’t really a fertilizer; they’re not giving nutrients to the plant. They’re not really a pesticide because they’re not directly acting to treat a disease or repel an insect. So that left companies like Acadian trying to figure out how to bring these products to the marketplace.
ABG: So, they’re not fertilizers and they’re not pesticides. What challenges does that pose for biostimulant providers and what can manufacturers do about it?
DH: So, it left us kind of in a regulatory quagmire. And that’s where in the U.S. and even globally around the world, companies like Acadian have come together with some of our colleagues and formed industry alliances to lobby regulators to say there needs to be a category of products for plant biostimulants. That term popped up about just about 20 years ago.
Most people have come to accept biostimulants help the natural processes of the plant. That action stimulates things that will improve plant establishment, improve tolerance, abiotic stress, and in some cases, resistance to disease. They make a healthier plant overall.
ABG: What countries or regions have embraced biostimulants?
DH: Europe is an established biostimulant market. People have been using biostimulants in Europe for 50 years or more, but even though it’s well established, there’s an area prime for growth because of initiatives that show they want to increase the amount of organic agriculture in Europe.
The EU wants to limit the amount of synthetic chemicals and pesticides going into the environment. So, even though that’s an established market, it’s a market that is poised for significant growth.
Other markets around the world maybe have never heard of a biostimulant or are less familiar with them. There are some areas of Latin America where this is a relatively new technology. Those are ones that the industry has the chance to go in and try to educate both the regulators on what the product is, how it needs to be registered, and the ag community in general on how these products can help.
ABG: How has the perception of biostimulants changed in the past several years?
DH: I can still remember going to trade shows and you would have representatives for some of the large chemical companies come up and look at you and say, “Oh what do you guys sell?”
“We have a seaweed extract.”
We just got that “look.” That has changed. Progressive companies like Acadian and our good competition out there have provided a lot of science to show that these products aren’t snake oil.
We started to really do fundamental research on how these products worked in plant physiology. We very rapidly went to the market and published that in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and we told the entire world about what seaweed extracts could do. We did that and because it was peer-reviewed science, we were working often with the with leading researchers in the field.
ABG: Where do biostimulants fit in terms of sustainability?
DH: These products can help with a lot of the challenges that are around the world right now. With climate change, we’re seeing increased periods of drought or availability of water. These are things that biostimulants can help with.
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