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Land Report the Land Institute ∙ Summer 2011 the Land Institute LAND REPORT THE LAND INSTITUTE ∙ SUMMER 2011 THE LAND INSTITUTE MISSION STATEMENT DIRECTORS When people, land and community are as one, all three members Anne Simpson Byrne prosper; when they relate not as members but as competing inter- Vivian Donnelley Terry Evans ests, all three are exploited. By consulting nature as the source and Pete Ferrell measure of that membership, The Land Institute seeks to develop an Jan Flora agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned, while pro- Wes Jackson moting a community life at once prosperous and enduring. Patrick McLarney Conn Nugent Victoria Ranney OUR WORK Lloyd Schermer Thousands of new perennial grain plants live year-round at The Land John Simpson Institute, prototypes we developed in pursuit of a new agriculture Donald Worster that mimics natural ecosystems. Grown in polycultures, perennial Angus Wright crops require less fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide. Their root sys- tems are massive. They manage water better, exchange nutrients more STAFF e∞ciently and hold soil against the erosion of water and wind. This Scott Bontz strengthens the plants’ resilience to weather extremes, and restores Carrie Carpenter Marty Christians the soil’s capacity to hold carbon. Our aim is to make conservation a Cindy Cox consequence, not a casualty, of agricultural production. Sheila Cox Stan Cox LAND REPORT Lee DeHaan Ti≠any Durr Land Report is published three times a year. issn 1093-1171. The edi- Jerry Glover tor is Scott Bontz. To use material from the magazine, reach him at Adam Gorrell [email protected], or the address or phone number below. Stephanie Hutchinson Joan Jackson ELECTRONIC MEDIA Wes Jackson Patricia Johnson To receive Scoop, e-mail news about The Land Institute, write to Joan Ron Kinkelaar Jackson at [email protected], or call. Our Web site is landinsti- Glenn Laubhan tute.org. John Mai Grant Mallett Bob Pinkall SUPPORT Steve Renich To help The Land Institute, see the contribution form on the back John Schmidt cover, or contribute online at landinstitute.org. Funders receive the Duane Schrag Land Report. Scott Seirer Freddie Smith David Van Tassel TO REACH US Cindy Thompson The Land Institute Shuwen Wang 2440 E. Water Well Road, Salina, KS 67401 Darlene Wolf phone 785-823-5376 fax 785-823-8728 [email protected] CONTENTS land report 100, summer 2011 4 At the Land 15 The Future of Food Prince Charles 7 Hardening O≠ Wes Jackson 27 The Land Rudyard Kipling 8 A Rock Rolls Scott Bontz 29 Thanks to our contributors 11 Prairie Festival recordings 31 The writers and artists 12 Prairie Festival 2011 32 Donation form Cover: “Front’s Edge,” by Lisa Grossman. Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches. Grossman will show paintings at The Land Institute’s Prairie Festival, September 23-25. For another sample, and introduction of festival speakers, see page 12. Contents photo: Also scheduled for the festival is a book of Land Institute President Wes Jackson’s selected essays, “Nature as Measure.” This is the book’s cover photo, by Scott Bontz, and shows the institute’s perennial grain crops in the making: intermediate wheatgrass, sunflower, Illinois bundleflower, hybrid wheat, and hybrid sorghum. Last year researcher Lee DeHaan and about half a chanical transplanter. Two people take seedling plugs dozen workers spent two days hauling 4,800 interme- from flats and drop them into chutes. The machine diate wheatgrass seedlings from greenhouse to the field plants and waters the plugs. Other workers follow and transplanting them by hand. This year in about to assure proper deposit of the seedlings. From left: three days they moved five times as many seedlings. Kevin Urban, DeHaan, Kirsten Hansen, Elizabeth The di≠erence was The Land Institute’s new me- Peuchen, and Adam Gorrell. Scott Bontz photo. 4 LAND REPORT At the Land $695,000 FOR WHEATGRASS team of researchers at the ∙ study where growing wheatgrass makes the University of Minnesota and The most economic sense. Land Institute’s Lee DeHaan won a $695,000 grant to breed inter- The Land Institute focuses on breeding Amediate wheatgrass, a perennial grain in the perennial crops for grain. But studies by us making, and study how it can be put to use and researchers elsewhere show that hay in food and improved for fuel. This is per- can be removed from fields of perennials haps the biggest step to develop wheatgrass for decades with no apparent harm to soil as a grain after DeHaan’s work with it here – which doesn’t hold for annuals. (See page over the past seven years. It involves more 20 of the fall 2009 Land Report.) So, as the than breeding: the Minnesota team will in- Minnesota team said, “producing food and clude a soil researcher, an economist, and fuel with the same crop would remove the food scientists. The startup funding, from either-or scenario of current biofuel crops, the university’s Initiative for Renewable which require the sacrifice of potentially Energy and the Environment, will be spread food-producing land to plant them.” over three years. Then the effort will need to DeHaan wants researchers beyond seek more money. Minnesota to join the work. Expansion DeHaan helped write the grant propos- could help make Kernza – The Land al. He’ll provide improved starter seed – he’s Institute’s trademark name for wheatgrass seen steady gains in seed size and yield of – a commercial grain crop in as little time about 20 percent per generation. And he is as another decade. University researchers spending six weeks at Minnesota to help the are unlikely to take on writing large grant program. The university’s project is to proposals for Kernza, because they don’t know the crop and don’t want to do all the ∙ breed plants for yield and perform well in background work. But they are willing to Minnesota. collaborate if someone helps them through. ∙ study how the grain can be used and im- “I now see a big part of my work is to be proved as food. a ‘jumper cable’ to get this work going in ∙ study how genetics, fertilizers, and legume other places,” DeHaan said. intercropping affect seed yield, flour qual- More broadly along the line of enlarg- ity, carbon sequestration, profitability, and ing the team: researchers at Michigan State the amount and quality of stems and leaves University, who are studying though not for ethanol or direct burning. yet breeding wheatgrass and early peren- ∙ study tradeoffs between seed yield and nial wheat hybrids supplied by The Land biomass yield. Institute and Washington State, hosted a THE LAND INSTITUTE 5 meeting in July of more than two dozen sowing the idea researchers interested in perennial grains, The April issue of National Geographic including from Canada, Australia, and the presented a concise argument for peren- US Department of Agriculture, and three nial grains, including note of our work. Michigan farmers. They traded notes and Illustration was a photo of plants we grew: considered formation of an organization young annual wheat took a fraction of the that might be called International Perennial first page, while established perennial inter- Grains Society. mediate wheatgrass spanned that and the And on a note more refined: Free State facing page, then continued on a third. The Brewery in Lawrence, Kansas, made a lager comparison is fair, since for most of the year beer with Kernza. DeHaan said, “The local, a wheat field has little to no living roots. admittedly biased, reviews were good.” An article by researchers at The Land Institute and university a∞liates ranked in new manager February in the top 1 percent for citation After 16 years, day-to-day management of by other scientists in papers about environ- The Land Institute changed hands. Our first ment and ecology – meaning it was widely managing director, Ken Warren, retired in read and useful. The article was “Harvested June, after helping for a month to train his perennial grasslands provide ecological replacement, Scott Seirer. benchmarks for agricultural sustainability.” Seirer, 60, had retired three years The journal was Agriculture, Ecosystems earlier as executive editor of our local news- and Environment. Evaluation came from the paper, after 38 years in journalism. He kept Thomson Reuters service. busy with volunteer work, including as a The January 28 issue of Kiplinger Medicare counselor and a cooking teacher. Agriculture Letter, which o≠ers “forecasts The connection that comes with volun- for agribusiness decisionmakers,” noted pe- teering, however, is not the same as with rennial grains could be profitable in 10 years, a regular job, he said. Warren persuaded because of technology advances, research- him to take the reins of a growing farm sci- ers in China and mainstream universities ence nonprofit. Seirer said, “I’ve always joining The Land Institute’s work, and po- been an admirer of The Land and think a tentially huge savings to farmers. lot of the mission.” And, “The opportunity Kansas City Public Television produced to help with work that could be of global an eight-minute video about The Land significance is a particularly persuasive argu- Institute’s work. You can watch it at http:// ment.” He will be our budget overseer and www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijv7y-WEgE4. bottom-line watcher, business and person- Land Institute sta≠ members made nel manager, and public speaker and tour presentations in Germany, Washington, DC, leader. Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Utah, and Seirer grew up in Mankato, in north- Indiana. Upcoming: October 4 in Powell, central Kansas, began newspaper work as Wyoming; October 12 in San Francisco; a photographer for the Salina Journal, went October 20 in Beltsville, Maryland; on to write and edit at other papers, and November 30 in Urbana, Illinois; January 23 finished that career as the Journal’s execu- in Chestnut Ridge, New York; March 29 in tive editor.
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