Built for Food. Bred for the Field.
Non-GMO seed breeding for peas, soybeans, and corn
PURIS breeds non-GMO peas, soybeans, and corn with one purpose: to deliver food-grade seed that performs in the field and moves into reliable, premium markets. For nearly 40 years, we have focused on natural breeding that delivers strong agronomics, great nutrition, consistent quality, and real on-farm value.
Our Breeding Programs
PURIS breeding programs follow a shared, disciplined framework across peas, soybeans, and corn. Rather than breeding toward a single outcome, we focus on how traits are developed, tested, and proven, from early crosses through field-ready varieties.
Food-grade requirements are integrated early in the breeding pipeline so that only varieties suited for downstream processing and contracted markets continue to advance. This means every variety that reaches the field has already been evaluated for the traits that matter most: agronomic performance, food-grade quality, and reliability for the farmers and buyers who depend on them.
Our Core
Breeding
Methods
Intentional Crosses, Stacked Traits
PURIS breeding begins with intentional crosses between high-performing parent lines selected for agronomic strength, regional adaptability, and food-grade quality. Breeders stack traits such as yield potential, disease resistance, stress tolerance, and nutritional performance to build varieties that deliver across multiple dimensions.
Single Plant Selection (SPS) adds precision by advancing individual plants with standout characteristics through multiple generations. This careful, hands-on approach ensures that only the strongest genetics move forward, creating a foundation for varieties that perform in the field and meet the demands of food-grade processing.
By combining hybridization with disciplined single-plant evaluation, PURIS develops parent lines and commercial varieties with the trait depth needed for today's food system.
Measuring What Matters Under Real-World Conditions
Extensive field evaluations allow PURIS breeders to measure critical traits including emergence, vigor, plant architecture, biomass, maturity timing, and standability under real-world growing conditions. Every data point collected in the field helps build a clearer picture of how each line will perform at scale.
Repeated phenotyping helps identify consistency early and remove lines that do not perform. Rather than relying on a single season or location, PURIS breeders observe how genetics respond across variable weather, pest pressure, and soil conditions over time.
This rigorous, data-driven evaluation process ensures that only the most reliable, field-ready lines advance toward commercial production, reducing risk for growers and delivering dependable performance season after season.
Proven Performance Across Regions
PURIS evaluates breeding lines through multi-environment trials conducted across diverse locations, climates, and soil types, working with university partners and regional field sites across the U.S. This broad geographic testing reveals how genetics perform under the full range of conditions they will encounter in commercial production.
Multi-Locational Yield Trials (MLYTs) represent the final stage, placing advanced lines head-to-head across regions. These trials generate the data needed to make confident advancement decisions and ensure that varieties recommended to growers have been validated under the conditions where they will actually be planted.
By testing extensively before release, PURIS delivers varieties that farmers and food companies can count on for consistent, high-quality results.
Food Functionality Built Into the Genetics
Food functionality is built into the breeding process from the start, not added as an afterthought. Lines are routinely screened for protein quality and suitability for food-grade processing, ensuring that advanced varieties meet the standards required for isolated pea protein and other food applications.
This nutrition-based selection means that PURIS varieties are developed with end-use performance in mind. Breeders evaluate how each line's composition translates to real-world food manufacturing, from protein extraction efficiency to flavor and functional characteristics.
By integrating nutritional screening into every stage of the breeding pipeline, PURIS ensures that the varieties reaching commercial scale are not only strong in the field but also optimized for the food products consumers want.
Yellow Field Peas
PURIS breeding delivers yellow field pea varieties purpose-built for food-grade quality and agronomic resilience.
- Higher protein potential per acre without compromising yield
- Seed quality optimized for the best possible finished product
- Improved tolerance to disease and environmental stress
- Varieties well-suited for soil-health-forward rotations supporting regenerative practices
- Consistent quality for food processing applications
As a legume, yellow field peas also contribute rotational benefits by fixing nitrogen and supporting long-term soil health.
Soybeans
PURIS breeding produces non-GMO soybean varieties that perform across diverse growing environments and meet food-grade standards.
- Stable yield performance across maturity zones and environments
- Improved emergence, standability, and early-season vigor
- Tolerance to regionally relevant disease and soil stress
- Seed quality optimized for the best possible finished product
- Varieties aligned with food-grade processing and contracted end markets
Accelerated breeding cycles enable faster delivery of improved non-GMO soybean varieties without compromising field validation.
Corn Hybrids
PURIS corn hybrids are bred for broad adaptability and designed to complement pea and soybean rotations in food-focused supply chains.
- Broad adaptability across regions and environments
- Stable yields under variable field conditions
- Hybrids that support regenerative, diverse rotations
- Non-GMO and organic options aligned with food-focused markets
PURIS corn supports non-GMO, food-focused supply chains and complements pea and soybean rotations.
Boosting Protein Content
We work to maximize protein potential while maintaining agronomic performance, improving both yield efficiency and suitability for protein isolation in food and beverage applications. By selecting for higher protein concentration at the seed level, PURIS varieties deliver more value from every harvest, connecting farm-level output directly to the needs of food companies and consumers.
Improving Agronomics
From higher yields and improved disease resistance to broader climate adaptability, PURIS varieties are bred to deliver more value per acre under real field conditions. Our breeding program ensures that farmers can count on consistent, reliable performance season after season, no matter the growing environment.
Advancing Sustainability
By developing varieties that fix nitrogen more efficiently and require fewer chemical inputs, our breeding efforts support soil health, rotation diversity, and reduced environmental impact. These sustainability gains ripple across the entire food system, benefiting farmers, food companies, and the communities they serve.
Optimizing Processing Efficiency
PURIS crops are bred with downstream performance in mind, ensuring they extract, process, and function reliably in food-grade processing systems. This means ingredient buyers and food companies can depend on consistent quality and functionality from field to finished product.
The Impact of Our Breeding Program
Our Seed Breeding Program delivers benefits that reach far beyond our fields.
For Farmers: Higher-yielding, disease-resistant varieties improve profitability while supporting sustainable rotations that enrich the soil.
For Food Companies: Consistent, high-protein crops streamline production and enhance the functional quality of plant-based products. All PURIS seeds and ingredients are Non-GMO Project Verified to help your brand keep up with today's consumer demands.
For Consumers: Our innovations translate into healthier, nutrient-dense plant-based food options.
For the Planet: Crops that require fewer inputs and improve soil health help create a more sustainable food system.
