WE HAD AN INTERESTING conversation recently with the CEO of a new Washington-state company about its use of marine-based byproducts. The byproducts are used to make pest control and nutrient management more effective on both specialty and commodity crops. 

Kevin Hammill, a veteran of the crop protection industry dating back to the American Cyanamid days and its evolution into BASF, has been at the helm of Tidal Grow AgriScience for the past year and a half at the company’s Bellingham, Wash., Headquarters. Hammill also spent time at Valent USA and Sumitomo Chemicals in his career. As a native of Prince Edward Island with experience on his family’s potato farm, he says he’s been very familiar with no-till farming since beginning the practice at home in the early 1980s.

Tidal Grow makes ag products out of crushed crab shells and waste from the seafood processing industry. Despite the somewhat surprising feedstock for its products, Tidal Grow says its four new plant-health and pest-control products are rapidly coming online to help mainstream growers across the Midwest with some impressive ROI projections.

Spectra Fungicide. Hammill says Tidal Grow launched Spectra, a fungicide and biostimulant based on a proprietary biomolecule developed from chitosan found…