Welcome to
The Pennycress Company
Developing plant seeds as quality feedstock for eco-conscious manufacturers of oil-based products
About Us
The Pennycress Company is an early-stage agricultural biotechnology startup based in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our mission is to make agriculture more profitable and sustainable by bioengineering and selling pennycress seeds — a winter oilseed crop that farmers can grow between corn and soybean seasons. By doing so, we help farmers earn extra income and improve soil and ecosystem health, while providing a low-carbon feedstock for renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel.
What We Do
We achieve this by using state of the art technologies in plant science including gene editing, metabolic modeling, and precision agriculture.
We are developing oilseeds for farmers to increase profits and ecosystem health.
All while ensuring a reliable supply chain connecting farmers to jet fuel consumers and livestock producers.
Founder
The Pennycress Copmany is founded by Dr. Jason B. Thomas, a Nebraska-born plant scientist and entrepreneur passionate about building climate-resilient agriculture. After earning his PhD in Plant Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota and completing postdoctoral research at Stanford’s Carnegie Institution for Science, he founded The Pennycress Company to unlock the potential of pennycress as a sustainable aviation fuel crop.
