UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A career in sustainable agriculture was not what Luis Alejandro Vergara had originally envisioned for himself. When he came to Penn State, he started studying petroleum engineering, but he eventually switched and ended up graduating with a bachelor's degree in environmental systems engineering in 2017.

Currently, he is a doctoral student, working as a researcher and tutor, at the University of Dublin and a sustainability analyst at BiOrbic, Bioeconomy SFI Research Centre.

He said his most impactful effort so far, however, is a startup called Carbon Harvesters.

Carbon Harvesters aims to "monitor, reduce and monetize farm's sustainable management" by using 20 mitigation strategies to maintain farming production, including reducing the use of chemical fertilizer, providing anti-methanogenic feed additives and using renewable energies. Vergara said many farmers used chemical fertilizer to chemically fix nitrogen to facilitate the growth of grass. Instead, he encourages farmers to use natural fertilizers, which could save money.

Studying at Penn State gave him lab and field research experience. Through these experiences, he said he realized that he wanted to pursue a career in sustainability, not petroleum engineering.

“I realized that my passion was elsewhere,” he said. “I really valued my time studying petroleum engineering, but it wasn’t for me.” 

When he changed majors to environmental systems engineering, he wanted hands-on research experience and was able to spend 10 months researching the potential use of electrochemically active microorganisms — from acid mine drainage-affected sites — in microbial fuel cells.

After graduation from Penn State, he finished master's degree studies in sustainable energy engineering and management of environment and energy. His research focused on the value of algae on agriculture decarbonization. He studied algae growth in Australia and learned that over 50% of methane consumption could be saved when feeding one or two grams of specific algae to a cow. His efforts led him to found Carbon Harvesters and to focus his doctoral research on agricultural sustainability and biosystems engineering.

"We see solar panels; we see a lot of onshore and offshore wind, but agriculture is just getting touched," Vergara said of sustainability efforts.

Vergara co-founded Carbon Harvesters in 2020 after becoming a doctoral candidate in Ireland. Vergara collaborated with a farm that aims to produce net-zero milk, meaning the net result of carbon emissions during the process are zero. As a lifecycle assessment, he developed a model qualifying the agricultural environmental impacts and worked with farmers on what improvements and technologies could reduce carbon emissions. Later, he developed a model in dairy, beef, swine and mushrooms in Ireland and Spain.

Today, Carbon Harvesters help develop sustainable strategies for around 2,000 farms and 12 agri-food groups. Vergara plans to improve their decarbonization model to help farmers increase their income and reduce carbon emissions. He said his goal is to expand Carbon Harvesters service to other European countries and promote it worldwide. 

“It’s a matter of explaining to farmers the benefits in the long run,” he said. “You have to make it make sense economically for them, which it does, but it is a completely new business model.”

For example, Vergara explained that diversifying the use of farmland can be a natural way of reinvigorating the soil, as opposed to using harmful and expensive chemical fertilizers.

Vergara uses databases, sensors, satellite images and weather stations to collect input and output farming data. Talking about agricultural sustainability is delicate, he said, because farmers are frustrated and dissatisfied by climate change discourse that places blame on them. He aims to provide solutions for farmers and works with farmers to understand what they want and need on the Carbon Harvesters platform and how the decarbonizing solutions could help them.

Vergara encourages people to use critical thinking around climate change.

“It’s always evolving,” he said. “I always recommend reading science before making a judgment. So many people are locked into their beliefs, but there is science and data out there to make informed opinions.”

Vergara encourages students to be brave to discover the unknown and be innovative because people are curious, and there is "a lot of support" from the University. Penn State Sustainability, for example, provides expertise in a number of areas, including student and staff engagement, curriculum development, student-community projects, operations, research and more. More so, according the Penn State Sustainability website, the effort is evolving with room to grow and support new ideas.

"[It] doesn't matter how crazy your idea is," Vergara said. "There are a lot of mysteries that will come, and then there will be a lot of pressure. But that is part of [the research]."

For more information on Penn State international alumni, contact Kelly Morgante, associate director for global alumni relations and stewardship at ksm18@psu.edu.

For more information on Carbon Harvesters, contact Luis Alejandro Vergara at alejandro@carbonharvesters.com.