Rooted in Tomorrow Podcast: Why a healthier food system begins with animal nutrition innovation

Dr. Peter Karnezos, senior director of feed additive research and innovation, offers an inside scoop about microbiome research happening now at the Purina Animal Nutrition Center

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. (April 19, 2023) – In the latest episode of Land O’Lakes, Inc.’s Rooted in Tomorrow podcast, Dr. Peter Karnezos, senior director of feed additive research and innovation, offers an inside scoop about microbiome research happening now at the Purina Animal Nutrition Center that’s helping unlock the greatest potential of every animal.   

Dr. Karnezos breaks down what the microbiome is, why it’s critical to an animal’s overall health, and how he’s using microbiome data collection to help farmers.  

“What we are realizing is that the success of all agriculture – not only that of animals, but also with crops – lies in the growing, the maintaining and cultivating, if you will, of a healthy gut or a healthy root microbiome,” says Dr. Karnezos. “I believe that we’re entering what we might call the new agricultural revolution. And the new agricultural revolution really is centering around how do we farm this population of bacteria?”  

Dr. Karnezos leads microbiome research at the Purina Animal Nutrition Center and has 28 years of experience in national and international agribusiness, extension and academic research.   

“What we’re really working on are ways to supplement the nutrition in a way that can optimize the health and performance of the animal. Within that category falls a whole host of ingredients. For example, there is a whole lot of biotic functions: probiotics, prebiotics, post biotics, which can be used to support certain aspects of gut health and immunity,” Dr. Karnezos remarked.  

You can learn more from Dr. Karnezos by listening to the podcast episode on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and more.  

Rooted in Tomorrow is an ag business and innovation podcast hosted by Land O’Lakes Chief Communications Officer Kim Olson. It brings together industry leaders for conversations about unlocking farming’s true potential and changing the world for the better.