For Nina Vinot, the parallels between human health and agriculture are too striking to ignore.
As business development director at French agri-biotech company Cybèle Agrocare, Vinot has built her career at the intersection of gut health, probiotics and agricultural microbiomes. She believes farming is only beginning to scratch the surface of what that crossover could deliver.
“The root is very much like an external gut,” she tells AgNavigator. The absorption of nutrients, the first lines of defence, even how organisms recruit beneficial microbes – the ecological principles are very similar, she explains.
That insight is now shaping a new wave of biological inputs, from biostimulants to biofertilisers, designed to enhance soil function much like probiotics support human health.
The missing link: soil health and human nutrition
Vinot’s thinking was influenced by the popular book What Your Food Ate, which explores how soil degradation has weakened the nutritional value of crops.
“We know that the micronutrient content of fruits, vegetables and cereals has declined significantly since the 1950s,” she warns. “Even if we eat the fruits and veggies we’re supposed to, we may not be getting the micronutrients we need.”
The root cause, she argues, lies in the shift from organic fertilisation to chemically driven agriculture, which has gradually stripped soils of the biological complexity that plants need.
“The more living your soil is, the better nutrients you get into plants,” she says. “Symbiosis with bacteria and mycorrhizae allows plants to access more minerals and explore the soil much more effectively.”
Yet despite growing recognition of this link, Vinot says agriculture still fails to measure or reward nutritional quality.
Why agriculture lags probiotics science
In human health, microbiome research is well established, supported by regular testing and clinical trials. In agriculture, the picture is very different.
“While there are many innovative, curious growers that keep pushing boundaries by conducting field trials, soil microbiome analysis is still very expensive and rarely done in field trials,” Vinot explains. “Nutritional quality is another measurement that is needed and seldom done.”
That gap limits the ability of companies to prove the value of microbial products beyond yield or input efficiency, particularly when pitching benefits linked to human health.
It also reflects a structural issue in the food system: Farmers are not paid for higher nutritional content, retailers do not market it, and consumers rarely demand it.
We don’t have sufficient data to make that case, she says. “This is a major challenge.”
Learning from probiotics: feeding the microbiome
Vinot sees one of the most powerful lessons from gut health in how organisms actively invest in their microbial partners.
“In humans, around 30% of the energy in breast milk feeds the microbiome,” she says. “Plants do the same – roughly 30% of their energy goes into root exudates to recruit microbes.”
That insight reframes crops not just as passive recipients of inputs, but as active managers of their microbial ecosystems.
It also shapes next-generation biosolutions, including strains that enhance nutrient availability, improve resilience and reduce fertiliser use and raises questions about selecting crop varieties for their ability to recruit beneficial microbes.
The promise of microbial inputs – and their limits
Cybèle Agrocare is part of a growing cohort scaling these solutions, producing microbial strains for biocontrol and biofertiliser products.
Vinot highlights Azospirillum, which improves root architecture and nitrogen efficiency, potentially reducing synthetic nitrogen use by up to ~100 kg/ha while lowering costs and emissions.
However, performance can vary.
“Biologicals are living systems,” she says. “They must establish themselves and interact with soil, climate and crop conditions.”
She adds that results are often stronger in more stressed or degraded soils, where the biological ‘gap’ is greater and the potential for improvement is higher.
This variability underscores the need for local agronomic knowledge and field-specific recommendations.
Starting conditions matter
One of the biggest blind spots in current research, Vinot argues, is the history of the soil itself.
“If you start from a field that has had 10 years of intensive inputs and switch to regenerative practices, the soil is still going to be poor,” she says.
This makes it difficult to standardise results, compare trials and predict outcomes across regions
“It’s a living system,” she adds. “You have variability from one field to the next – even within the same field.”
A growing need for soil intelligence
Vinot is encouraged by emerging start-ups tackling this complexity.
She points to Elaniti, backed by The First Thirty, which is developing tools to link soil microbiology to nutrient content, crop performance and disease risk, as a sign of where the sector needs to go. The Bezos Earth Fund is also backing a global initiative to make soil health visible, measurable, and actionable.
“We need more of that,” she says. “Agriculture doesn’t yet go far enough in analysing nutritional content or soil biology.”
For her, better data is essential to prove the value of microbiome-based inputs, connect soil health to human health outcomes and build stronger business cases for farmers, especially as rising fertiliser prices and tighter pesticide regulations drive demand for alternatives.
The next frontier: soil decontamination
Beyond improving soil function, Vinot sees an urgent need for innovation in soil decontamination – particularly as new threats emerge.
Microplastics and PFAS contamination are raising concerns not just for soil fertility, but for public health.
“When I hear about microplastics in soil reducing fertility, I’m very worried for the future,” she says.
More troubling still is emerging evidence that microplastics can act as reservoirs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
“That connects directly to human health,” she adds. “We are seeing antibiotic resistance becoming one of the biggest global threats.”
Early-stage companies, such as those working on microbial bioremediation of microplastics, offer some promise – but Vinot stresses that the field is still in its infancy.
Bridging the gap between soil and society
Ultimately, Vinot believes agriculture is entering a phase where soil health, human health and environmental sustainability converge.
But unlocking that potential will require more investment in microbiome research, better measurement of nutritional outcomes, greater integration of human health considerations into farming systems and new solutions for soil decontamination.
For now, the sector remains focused on more immediate pressures – reducing costs, maintaining yields and complying with environmental regulations.
But the direction of travel is clear.
“What we need to explore further,” she says, “is how we support human health through soil health.”
For a sector used to thinking in terms of inputs and outputs, that may require a fundamental rethink – one that starts not with crops, but with the invisible ecosystems beneath them.
