Scientists are growing crops with salt water that could help save us from starvation [Video]

Saltwater is bad news for most crops, but not for a series of tomatoes, alfalfa, onions, and rice sprouting in a lab in Israel.

These crops are the non-GMO brainchild of Ṛcā Godbole, a plant molecular biologist and co-founder of SaliCrop. And they don’t just grow, they thrive on salt water.

Over the last four years, SaliCrop has been testing its seed enhancement technology on tomatoes in southern Spain, where devastating drought has triggered severe salinization, the process where soils become too salty for crops to grow efficiently.

With SaliCrop’s seeds, however, participating tomato farmers have seen a 10% to 17% increase in crop yields, earning them an extra $1,600 per hectare, SaliCrop CEO Carmit Oron told Business Insider.

Spain is just one of many places worldwide with a serious salinization issue. A perfect storm of years-long irrigation, warming …