The Voight lab does it this way because they are a plant engineering lab and they have a grant to try out the experiments. Simple as that. You would be right t

The Voight lab does it this way because they are a plant engineering lab and they have a grant to try out the experiments. Simple as that. You would be right to assume that engineering the bacteria would be easier. There are already companies that work to provide specialized nitrogen-fixing bacteria strains for agricultural use. However governmental regulations for using a genetically modified bacteria vs a genetically modified plant for widespread agriculture use are different.