How does a software engineer end up in farming? “When I was a kid, I loved nature and biology. But after secondary school, when I had to choose what to study, I thought my life would be easier if I chose computer science, which I also loved.
Being from Argentina, I combined working and studying. I have been working as a software engineer for ten years while studying computer science in the evenings.”
Juan Cruz Tubio
(31)
2023 – now CEO of Mycofarming
2021 -2023 Software engineer at Code Yellow
2020- now Bachelor’s Artificial Intelligence, VU Amsterdam
2013-2020 Systems Engineering, Buenos Aires
What brought you to Amsterdam? “In 2016, I did an exchange program in Diemen and I loved it. It was a life changer for me: Amsterdam is so clean and green compared to Buenos Aires and it’s safe to walk around, even at night. I found out that people actually care about their environment, whereas in Argentina people worry mainly about their survival.
I went back to Argentina and a few years later, in 2020, I started a bachelor’s in Artificial Intelligence at VU. It was in the middle of the pandemic. The first two months I studied online from Buenos Aires and then I moved to Uilenstede, but I wasn’t even allowed to meet my flat mates.”
That must have been lonely. “It was difficult, but gradually the world opened up again and I could meet people and build up a life here.”
It still seems like a big leap from computers to fungi. How did mushrooms catch your interest? “I was taking a minor in Neuroscience. One of the topics was the effects of psychedelics on the brain. I got fascinated by mushrooms and started reading about them. Within a few months, I had read most of the scientific literature on fungi. I read about the role of fungi in the nitrogen cycle and how they can be used to purify water. Suddenly it clicked: I realized fungi might be a solution in catching surplus nitrogen that leaks into the ditches on Dutch farmland.”
And that was the start of Mycofarming? “After reading about a hundred articles, I made a list of the ten best ones and emailed the authors. One of them, Dr Osarenotor from Benin, replied almost immediately. He is doing research on how to use fungi to clean the water in his country. Together, we developed the idea further to use fungi in Dutch ditches.”
Mycofarming
Mycofarming is a startup that uses fungi to extract pollutants like nitrogen from water. The company currently has four employees and is based in the VU Demonstrator Lab. It currently has a fundraising campaign on: https://steun.vu.nl/mycofarming.
As student entrepreneur you managed to get the support of VU Fonds. Every VU-employee got an email with the request to support Mycofarming. How did you arrange that? “Hans Drenth, director of the VU StartHub told us that VU Fonds was looking for a startup focused on societal and environmental impact to showcase in their campaign and Mycofarming fitted perfectly into that image.”
How much money do you want to raise? “We need around 300.000 euro for the coming year, I hope we will get 25.000 through crowdfunding and the rest from investors.”
What does your solution look like? “Our plan is to place floating bags with fungi in the ditches. The water flows through but the nitrogen is bound by the fungi, that feed on it. Later on, the fungi, with the bound nitrogen, can be used to fertilize the land again.”
How much of the excess nitrogen can be caught that way? “If you fertilize farmland, only 30% of the nitrogen is bound by the crops. So normally, 70% leaks into the environment. We think that our fungi can catch about 60% of the total amount of nitrogen, so that means it reduces the leakage from 70% to 10%. But we are still researching this.”
How do you reach Dutch farmers? We collaborate with Aeres Hogeschool in Dronten. They have a test-ditch where we can do research and the also have contacts to farmers and farmers organizations.
Have you finished your studies at VU yet? “No, I still need to pass one course: Automata and complexity.”