Last week brought news of a huge honor for Elemental Enzymes, when Fast Company released its annual World Changing Ideas list. The list named Elemental as the winner in its “Established Excellence: 5-14 Years in Business” category. Additionally, Fast Company selected the company as a finalist in the competition’s “Agriculture” category for its technology to fight Citrus Greening, Vismax®.

Since the bacteria-carrying insect that causes Citrus Greening disease was first confirmed in Miami nearly 20 years ago, it has contributed heavily to the devastating 90% loss of orange production for growers in the state of Florida. When applied early in the growing season, Elemental’s naturally derived peptide-based crop protectant, Vismax, has proven it can safely slow disease progress by stimulating a tree’s immunity to fight the bacteria. This preserves more harvestable and better-quality oranges — all without leaving a harmful environmental footprint.

“We are incredibly honored by and proud of this win,” says Elemental Enzymes CEO and co-founder Brian Thompson, Ph.D. “We have seen incredible results for growers of oranges and other citrus, and we believe scaling up the use of Vismax technology to different crops will be instrumental in protecting their yield and quality — making more food available to a growing global population, in enough supply to make it affordable.”

Last year marked the first sales of licensed Vismax products to treat U.S. citrus groves, following U.S. Environmental Protection Agency registration for providing protection to plants by nontoxic mechanisms.

Elemental Enzymes is proud of how simple it is for growers to integrate Vismax into their existing cropping practices. Its active peptide is stabilized to preserve its useful functions. In this way, the crop protectant can be easily packaged and shipped to the grower, and it is easy to apply foliarly with other products that the farmer already uses.

What’s more, Vismax isn’t only useful in citrus groves. Since it concentrates on amplifying a plant’s inner defenses, as opposed to killing pathogens as chemical fungicides and pesticides do, Vismax provides broad-spectrum protection against other diseases afflicting additional important crops.

Beyond Citrus Greening, Vismax helps manage pathogens in a range of crops: Asian Soybean Rust and Frogeye Leaf Spot on soybeans, Sclerotinia on lentils and potatoes, rusts on corn, and Brown Rot on almonds.

“Vismax holds so much potential, which I believe is what Fast Company saw in us,” says Elemental Enzymes Chief Science Officer and co-founder Ashley Siegel, Ph.D. “We have the opportunity to help farmers across the world with this technology.”

Read the Fast Company feature to learn more about Vismax technology and this honor for Elemental Enzymes.