California Organic makes the world’s first green ammonia that is California-certified organic. Already in market and growing rapidly, our organic ammonia is made from farm & ag wastes via a bulk fermentation bioprocess.

Until today, all organic agriculture has used nitrate fertilizers, which have several inefficiencies. Nitrates are in slurries and so can’t go into drip irrigation water systems; for this same reason, they can’t easily be increased in dosage step in step with the growth of the crop, and instead are intermittently applied to soil, which is laborious and imprecise. Most importantly, nitrates are water soluble and flush through the soil and leach out into groundwater. One-third of the nitrates are lost, and cause runoff problems downstream. Another third of the nitrates get eaten by soil microbes, as microbes eat before plants eat. Therefore much more nitrate has to be used, driving up total costs.

Ammonia products, meanwhile, are an immediately available source of nitrogen to crops, so they are preferred across conventional agriculture. They also bind to soil, so don’t flush away. In drip and trickle systems, they can feed the plant exactly when needed. By not drenching their fields, farmers avoid N2) hot moments. But until today, all ammonia products are chemically made – and forbidden in the organic sector.

California Organic invented a bioprocess to convert biowaste from farms and processors into ammonia products that are both decarbonized (green) and organic certified. After a 2-year rigorous evaluation with the CDFA, we began selling our green organic ammonia products in late 2023. Our production facility is over 1 million liters, and we are expanding it in 2024.

We can make our ammonia at up to 20% concentration in water; however, for organic applications, per agreement with the CDFA, we ship the ammonia at 6%.