DOCSLIB.ORG

Land Report Number 113, Fall 2015 · the Land Institute About the Land Institute

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Land Report Number 113, Fall 2015 · the Land Institute About the Land Institute Land Report Number 113, Fall 2015 · The Land Institute About The Land Institute MISSION STATEMENT DIRECTORS When people, land and community are as one, all three members Christina Lee Brown Brian Donahue prosper; when they relate not as members but as competing inter- Vivian Donnelley ests, all three are exploited. By consulting nature as the source and Sam Evans Terry Evans (emeritus) measure of that membership, The Land Institute seeks to develop an Pete Ferrell agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned, while pro- Jan Flora Eric Gimon moting a community life at once prosperous and enduring. Wes Jackson Kenneth Levy-Church Michelle Mack OUR WORK Patrick McLarney Thousands of new perennial grain plants live year-round at The Land Leigh Merinoff Conn Nugent Institute, prototypes we developed in pursuit of a new agriculture Victoria Ranney (emeritus) that mimics natural ecosystems. Grown in polycultures, perennial Lloyd Schermer (emeritus) John Simpson crops require less fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide. Their root sys- Donald Worster tems are massive. They manage water better, exchange nutrients Angus Wright more e∞ciently and hold soil against the erosion of water and wind. STAFF This strengthens the plants’ resilience to weather extremes, and re- Scott Allegrucci stores the soil’s capacity to hold carbon. Our aim is to make conser- Jamie Bugel vation a consequence, not a casualty, of agricultural production. Carrie Carpenter Marty Christians Sheila Cox LAND REPORT Stan Cox Land Report is published three times a year. issn 1093-1171. The edi- Tim Crews tor is Scott Bontz. To use material from the magazine, reach him at Lee DeHaan Ti≠any Durr [email protected], or the address or phone number below. Ron Fent Adam Gorrell Stephanie Hutchinson ELECTRONIC MEDIA Wes Jackson For e-mail news about The Land Institute, write to Carrie Carpenter Patricia Johnson at [email protected], or call. Web site: landinstitute.org. Laura Kemp Ron Kinkelaar John Mai SUPPORT Randy Mathews To help The Land Institute, see the contribution form on page 30, or Pheonah Nabukalu Jayne Norlin go to landinstitute.org. Contributors receive the Land Report. Duane Schrag Scott Seirer TO REACH US Dorene Shipley Rachel Stroer The Land Institute Freddie Smith 2440 E. Water Well Road, Salina, KS 67401 David Van Tassel phone 785-823-5376 Cindy Thompson Kathryn Turner fax 785-823-8728 Shuwen Wang [email protected] Darlene Wolf 2 LAND REPORT Land Report Number 113, Fall 2015 · The Land Institute 4 Jackson to leave presidency 18 Wheat that takes the heat The man who co-founded The Land Breeding perennial intermediate Institute in 1976 wants to keep work- wheatgrass by durum, a wheat with ing for the organization’s mission, but fewer chromosomes than bread wheat, plans to hand over leadership by his makes hybrids that can survive the 80th birthday next year. summer after harvest. 6 Where and what we are 20 What will people do for dirt? For inversion of thinking that has put Just about anything, historian Angus the world outside us, consider poet Wright said, including kill one an- Nikki Giovanni’s view of friendship. other. But their complex conservation methods for annual crops still lose soil. 8 Are there other candidates? The Land Institute’s development of 23 Land Institute shorts perennial crops is confined to a hand- Sequencing intermediate wheatgrass. ful of species. It has enlisted help to Land Institute perennials in Denmark seek more prospects among the world’s and Sweden. thousands of perennials. 24 Desert food crops prophet 16 Perennial grains in Africa For as long as The Land Institute has Researchers saw how African farmers, pursued perennial grains, Richard with poor soil and no fertilizer, could Felger has promoted native desert benefit from perennial grains. They plants to feed the Southwest. also saw how perennial sorghum plants from The Land Institute were faring. 28 Thanks to our contributors Cover Pinnate prairie coneflower planted this year at The Land Institute to consider for development as a crop plant. The institute has joined with Missouri Botanical Garden and Saint Louis University to look among the world’s thousands of perennials for more candidates. See page 8. Scott Bontz photo. THE LAND INSTITUTE 3 Wes Jackson and supporters at the Prairie Festival. In 1976 Jackson and his wife at the time, Dana, founded The Land Institute. By its 40th anniversary next year he plans to leave the position of institute president. Jackson will be 80, but he wants to continue work for an agriculture patterned after natural ecosystems. “Of course no orga- nization stays the way it came into being,” he wrote to institute directors. But he hoped The Land Institute would stick to its mission of making people, land, and community as one, “willing to make necessary adjustments in order to get on with the job while avoiding the obsessions of the dominant culture.” Scott Seirer photo. 4 LAND REPORT Jackson plans to retire as president es Jackson does not want remain before perennial grains grown in to stop working toward mixtures can succeed commercially. But The his idea for a revolution Land Institute’s prospects have never looked of agriculture, with grains so bright. The man who can see the institute Wthat are perennial rather than annual, and from his backyard, and who can be irritated grown in mixtures of species like natural to see a plastic bag left uncollected after ecosystems to improve soil, water, farms, blowing against an institute fence, knows it and even the broader culture. In that last will be a struggle for him to let go. He has arena he wants to advance what he calls in- thought much about this, and wrote to the stitutionalization of an ecological worldview directors, “It is my intention to avoid giving – seeing Earth not as an environment sepa- advice or direction to my successor unless rate from us, something for us to use, but as asked. The next president will need the best a working whole of which we are a part. He chance to be ‘presidential.’” wants to write more. He might occasionally He encouraged the institute to still use still help raise money for The Land Institute. his barns and even his home for events like But four decades after founding the orga- the institute’s annual Prairie Festival. nization, he plans to hand over the reins as When Seirer announced the retirement president. plan to 700 festival-goers, they gave Jackson The transition is to be made by the a standing ovation. Next day they stood end of June 2016, the month of the founding again not just after but also before Jackson’s anniversary and of his 80th birthday. “The traditional festival-closing talk. stars are aligned,” Scott Seirer, the insti- Leading the search for a successor is tute’s managing director, said at the Prairie a committee of three board members and Festival in late September. Jackson also will two employees. Jackson is not on it. Doing leave The Land Institute’s 16-member Board the search legwork is San Francisco-based of Directors. California Environmental Associates. The Jackson has made the institute and its president will need to be creative, energetic, mission his life. The organization has grown patient, nimble of mind, and willing to chal- from a budget of $6,938 to $5.3 million. It lenge the status quo, Seirer said. employs more than 30 people, and manages Jackson said to directors, “Presidents buildings, equipment, and 691 acres worth without a vision become mere reactors to a total of $17 million. In the past two years the visions of those who dwell only on the it has essentially doubled the money going mechanics of sustaining the organization. to development of perennial grains, and in- Without a vision the job runs the president, cluded collaborators on every continent but causing the necessary energies of transcen- Antarctica. Jackson has long said that if you dence to falter and the spirited engagement choose a job that can be finished in your life- of the intellect of those around him or her to time, you aren’t thinking big enough. Years falter as well.” THE LAND INSTITUTE 5 Where and what we are o take our crops from vast fields of homogeneity and isolation, and instead grow them in niched mixtures of species, might help Tus recognize that all of our plants and live- A Poem of Friendship stock, and all of the things we aren’t directly eating – soil, water, air, wild species – are woven as a creative whole. This whole may nikki giovanni be called Earth, or it may be called the eco- sphere. What it should not be called, Land We are not lovers Institute President Wes Jackson thinks, is because of the love the environment. That word connotes some- we make thing out there or surrounding us, rather but the love than something of which we are an inter- we have dependent part. He made this argument in June at a Land Institute conference for insti- We are not friends tutionalization of an ecospheric worldview because of the laughs – that is, changing through education how we spend we see ourselves in the world. After the but the tears conference, Jackson’s wife, Joan, found and we save shared with him a poem. He thought this poem spoke to making that change in view, I don’t want to be near you and he sent it to conference participants for the thoughts we share with this introduction: “I loved the way it but the words we never have inverts much common understanding about to speak close relationships.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Intermediate Wheatgrass: Food Science Work To
    Intermediate Wheatgrass: Food Science Work to Develop Applications Food Science Groups: Mirko Bunzel ([email protected]) BaraemBaraem(Pam)(Pam) Ismail Ismail ([email protected]([email protected]) DevinDevin PetersonPeterson ([email protected]([email protected]) ) Tonya Schoenfuss ([email protected]) Koushik Seetharaman Lab (Dr.(Dr. Alessandra Marti [email protected]@umn.edu) George Annor Lab ([email protected]) What is Food Science and Why are We Working on IWG? Food science is the study of the physical, biological, and chemical makeup of food; and the concepts underlying food processing. Food technology is the application of food science to the selection, preservation, processing, packaging, distribution, and use of safe food. To Use Any Food Ingredient on an Industry Scale, we need to understand: • Functionality – how do the protein and starch behave when we cook or bake with IWG? – Can we modify this through processing? Breeding for certain traits? • Storage stability – What impacts shelf-life? Lipids? Enzymes? – Can we control this through processing? • Flavor – How does it compare to other grains and products we know? – What is unique about it? • Nutrients – What is its composition? – Are the unique components? Are there any anti-nutritional factors? Benefits and Challenges of IWG - Composition of IWG Compared to Wheat Composition IWG Composition Whole Wheat (average of 13 breeding populations) (Hard red spring) ash, 2.7% fat, 4.2% ash, 1.8% HRW protein, 12.0% fat, 3.1% 26 g/1000 seeds IWG (2004) 3.9 g/1000 seeds protein, 21.6% carbohydrates 71.5% carbohydrates , 83.0% More protein More carbohydrates Intermediate Wheatgrass (2015) IWG (2015) Protein, 16.4% 5.1 g/1000 seeds Fat, 5.04% Ash, 2.30% Carbohydrate, 75.8% Importance of Protein & Starch for Product Functionality • Proteins can be used to hold gas in baked goods (bread & popovers).
    [Show full text]
  • Transforming Human Life on Our Home Planet, Perennially
    www.ecologicalcitizen.net LONG ARTICLE Transforming human life on our home planet, perennially The development of agriculture is one of the key fault lines in human history, the starting Wes Jackson, point for the human project of dominating the planet. As the catastrophic consequences of that domination become undeniable, an ecospheric framework that recognizes the Aubrey Streit problem of agriculture should be at the centre of an analysis and critique of the ecological Krug, Bill Vitek and social failures of the industrial worldview that shapes today’s world. Ecosphere and Robert Studies, a new education programme being developed out of the perennial vision of The Land Institute, offers such a framework. By ‘driving knowledge out of its categories’ and Jensen adopting an ‘ignorance-based worldview’, scholars, teachers and activists can collaborate About the authors in experimental and experiential workshops that aim to create a perennial culture, challenging the short-term, unsustainable vision of the dominant culture, especially in See following page. affluent societies such as the US. Citation Jackson W, Streit Krug A, or those who are willing to face agriculture: Natural Systems Agriculture, Vitek B and Jensen R (2018) the multiple, cascading crises that which is based around perennial grains Transforming human life on Fhumans have created, one task is grown in mixtures, rather than annuals our home planet, perennially. analysis – how did we get here? In the grown in monocultures. A new Ecosphere The Ecological Citizen 2: 43–6. 200,000
    [Show full text]
  • Perennializing Grain Crop Agriculture: a Pathway for Climate Change Mitigation & Adaption a White Paper for the Philanthropic Community
    Perennializing Grain Crop Agriculture: A Pathway for Climate Change Mitigation & Adaption A white paper for the philanthropic community The Land Institute, Salina, KS February 13, 2020 Perennial grain crops deliver dramatic amounts of carbon to the soil, as illustrated by the extensive root system of intermediate wheatgrass (left) compared to annual wheat (right). Intermediate wheatgrass produces Kernza® perennial grain. Photo: Jim Richardson Authors: Fred Iutzi, MS and Tim Crews, PhD Contact: Timothy Crews, PhD Director of Research, The Land Rachel Stroer, Institute [email protected] Acting President, The Land Institute [email protected] The Land Institute, 2440 E. Water Well Rd., Salina, KS 67401 www.landinstitute.org 785-823-5376 1 CONTENTS Contents .............................................................................................................................................................. 2 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 3 Climate change mitigation & adaptation through perennial grain crops – non-technical narrative.............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Perennializing grain crops is a major untapped carbon sequestration opportunity ....... 4 How perennial grains can sequester large amounts of carbon in the soil ............................ 5 Transformational benefits
    [Show full text]
  • The Necessity and Possibility of an Agriculture Where Nature Is the Measure
    Conservation in Context The Necessity and Possibility of an Agriculture Where Nature is the Measure Across the farmlands of the world, cli- pesticides have seriously degraded yield crops that feed humanity— mate change overshadows an ecolog- this gift of good land, the best con- including rice, wheat, corn, soy- ical and cultural crisis of unequaled tiguous stretch in the world. beans, and peanuts—are annuals. scale: soil erosion, loss of wild bio- In California rich valleys and reli- With cropping of annuals (alive just diversity, poisoned land and water, able snow pack in a Mediterranean part of the year and weakly rooted salinization, nitrates, expanding dead environment lessen the problem of even then), comes more loss of pre- zones, the loss of farmers, and demise soil erosion. But there is spraying, cious soil, nutrients, and water. of rural communities. Rapid climate salinization, accumulation of toxins But the problem of agriculture is change seems certain to amplify the in the delta, and loss of farmland to about more than the annual condi- consequences, but it would be a cri- sprawl. tion. It is also about growing them in sis regardless. The same thing driv- I could continue the inventory, but the unnatural condition of vast mono- ing climate change helps drive agri- the point is each region has its own cultures. This makes harvest easy, but cultural crisis, and, until recently, problems and opportunities. So we these fields of annual monocultures helped mask it; cheap fossil fuel and must acknowledge that all success- have only one kind of root architec- the things made from it, including ful corrections will be local.
    [Show full text]
  • The Land Report a Publication of the Land Institute / Number 86 / Fall 2006
    The Land Report A publication of The Land Institute / Number 86 / Fall 2006 The Sunflower Why It’s a Crop, What This Costs the Land, and How We Work to Change That Contents The Land Institute Mission Statement Features When people, land and community are as one, all The Sunflower three members prosper; when they relate not as David Van Tassel members but as competing interests, all three are Why It’s a Crop, What This Costs the Land, exploited. By consulting nature as the source and and How We Work to Change That .................................4 measure of that membership, The Land Institute To Shatter, or Not to Shatter ................................................7 seeks to develop an agriculture that will save soil Production and Uses of Sunflower .......................................9 from being lost or poisoned, while promoting a A Native Gets Culture Abroad ...........................................11 community life at once prosperous and enduring. The Hybrid Ethos ...............................................................13 Why Sunflowers Follow the Sun .......................................14 Prairie Festival Land Institute Staff Land Institute Our Barn Spilleth Over ......................................................16 Ron Armstrong Board of Directors What Draws Them .............................................................18 Scott Bontz Anne Simpson Byrne Recordings .........................................................................20 Cindy Cox Strachan Donnelley Sheila Cox Terry Evans Long View, Lost
    [Show full text]
  • 'Is the Future of Agriculture Perennial?'
    ‘Is the Future of Agriculture Perennial?’ LUND, 6-10TH OF MAY 2019 2 ABSTRACTS FOR ‘IS THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE PERENNIAL?’, LUND, 6-10TH OF MAY 2019 Abstracts Keynote talks Tuesday 7/5 Wes Jackson, The Land Institute Nature Systems Agriculture and the Need for a Creaturely World View Natural Systems Agriculture began less than a year after our 1976 beginning when my students and I took a field trip to a native Kansas Prairie. Noting the contrast between nature’s prairie and annual grain monocultures the reality of nature’s wisdom and the failure of human cleverness was clear. Perennial grain polycultures research began, but with full awareness that science is embedded in dominating social organizations which must be well understood if we are to address the countless problems in our climate changing ecosphere. To that end I will give a brief history of our origins and argue for a information rich creaturely world view to replace the industrial mind. John Head, Kansas University Is the Future of Agroecological Governance also Perennial? In addition to the scientific innovations that will allow us to give an affirmative answer to the central question of this conference – “Is the Future of Agriculture Perennial?” – we must also consider and design legal and institutional innovations, especially at the global level, that can facilitate an effective transformation from modern extractive agriculture to agroecological husbandry. These reforms in agroecological governance should give special emphasis to (i) reconceptualizing state sovereignty to reflect 21st- century realities and (ii) introducing new legal entities (“eco-states”) with authority to manage agroecological matters in ways that will address the soil and climate crises.
    [Show full text]
  • The Land Report a Publication of the Land Institute / Number 92 / Fall 2008
    The Land Report A publication of The Land Institute / Number 92 / Fall 2008 yy country,country, my my America, America, defineddefined patriotismpatriotism as asa a willingnesswillingness to to sacrifice. sacrifice. IfIf wewe couldcould do do that that once, once, wewe could do do that that again. again. We couldWe could take the take the AmericanAmerican flag flag down down from fromthe outlet the outletmall and mall andplant plant it at theit at victory the victory garden. garden.–Barbara –BarbaraKingsolver Kingsolver Will the Real Conservatives Please Stand Up? plus Changing Heroes At the Land Breeding Perennial Rice in China n September, Land Institute plant breeders Stan Cox and David Van Tassel visited breeders in China who are developing perennial varieties of rice, arguably the world’s most important food crop, on which some I3 billion people depend. Cox went on to see Australians working toward perennial wheat. The Land Institute supports both efforts, to spread development of perennial grains beyond its own climate and geography. Cox and Van Tassel drove through the countryside of Yunnan Province in south China and saw cropping on frighteningly steep slopes with no terraces to curb erosion. Most of the crops were corn, with some sunflower. But much of the rice in south Yunnan, northern Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Thailand is grown on hillsides, not in flat, lowland paddies. This upland rice is what the Chinese are breeding to be a perennial crop, though paddy hybrids might follow. At Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ experiment station on Hainan Island, off the south coast of mainland China, Cox and Van Tassel were impressed by rice nurseries of descendants from a single hybrid plant that Yunnan’s Tao Dayun made 10 years ago in a difficult cross between cultivated rice, Oryza sativa, and a wild African species, Oryza longistaminata.
    [Show full text]
  • We Can Now Solve the 10,000-Year-Old Problem of Agriculture
    We Can Now Solve the 10,000-Year-Old Problem of Agriculture Wes Jackson The Land Institute Salina, Kansas [email protected] My beginning fix on native prairie happened during the summer of 9 when I was sixteen. I worked on a ranch near White River, South Dakota, close to the Rosebud Indian Reservation, and lived in the shack pictured in Figure . Years later, I began to grasp the importance of nature’s ecosystems. It happened in my own state of Kansas, where we have thousands of acres of prairie ranging from tall to short grass (Figure ). One June day in 977, two friends and I visited a tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills after a drenching rain. On the way home, we saw farmers’ fields similar to the one in Figure 3. On the prairie (Figure ), nature’s ecosystem is resilient and more or less free of dam- aging erosion, unlike grain agriculture (Figure 3). Why this is so has to do with what lies below the surface. Figure 4 reveals a network of perennial roots of various structures in prairie soil, whereas Figure provides a contrast between perennials and annuals of closely related species, both in monoculture. On the left is perennial wheatgrass, which we have named Kernza™. On the right is common annual bread wheat. Herbaceous Perennials How does a farmer manage herbaceous perennial seed-producing polycultures? We can take a clue from the native prairie, still in existence, as our standard. Nature uses fire as one “management tool” (Figure ) and grazing as another, as exemplified by bison on The Land Institute prairie (Figure 7).
    [Show full text]
  • Land Institute Founder to Discuss 'Age of Discovery' in UM Lecture
    University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present University Relations 2-26-1992 Land Institute founder to discuss 'Age of Discovery' in UM lecture University of Montana--Missoula. Office of University Relations Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/newsreleases Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation University of Montana--Missoula. Office of University Relations, "Land Institute founder to discuss 'Age of Discovery' in UM lecture" (1992). University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present. 12595. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/newsreleases/12595 This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Relations at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Montana Office of N ews and Publications NEWS RELEASE Missoula, MT 59812 (406) 243-2522 Feb. 26, 1992 LAND INSTITUTE FOUNDER TO DISCUSS ‘AGE OF DISCOVERY’ IN UM LECTURE MISSOULA - Wes Jackson, founder and president of The Land Institute, will visit The University of Montana Tuesday, March 10, to deliver a free public lecture on the age of discovery. Jackson will discuss "Five Hundred Years After Columbus: the End of the Age of Colonization and the Beginning of the Age of Discovery" at 8 p.m. in the Montana Theatre. The lecture is part of UM’s President’s Lecture Series. Jackson, one of 18 individuals Life magazine predicted will rank among the 100 "important Americans of the 20th Century," founded The Land Institute in 1976.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 2019 About the Land Institute
    Annual Report 2019 About The Land Institute Since 1976, The Land Institute has worked to transform grain agriculture globally from a system of extractive domination to one of generative care. Nature is our measure and from nature we are given two values that are key to a truly regenerative agriculture and to a healthy, just society in equilibrium with the earth of which it is a part: perenniality and diversity. Our team of plant breeders and ecologists, together with collaborators on six continents, are working to develop perennial grains, pulses, and oilseed bearing plants to be grown in ecologically intensified, diverse crop mixtures. When realized, this new agricultural system promises to hold and restore soil, produce ample food, require less fossil fuels, conserve water, and mitigate and endure the impacts of climate change. In tandem, we are working to extend the insights of this new agricultural system to aid human communities to live in just relationships within an ecospheric standard. The Land Institute is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) research and education organization funded by charitable contributions from individuals, organizations, and private foundations. Cover: Megan Gladbach, a perennial sorghum technician at The Land Institute, battles weeds with a hoe in a field of sorghum. The Institute is breeding sorghum to be a perennial food crop. Above: Crystal Ma, left, and Sienna Polk (interns) carry bags of harvested perennial wheat to the edge of a breed- ing plot for pickup. The wheat will later be threshed and analyzed in the lab. Looking on is Piyush Labhsetwar, a perennial wheat research technician.
    [Show full text]
  • 2440 E. Water Well Rd., Salina, Kansas 67416 [email protected]
    Kernza® Collaborators In 2009, Kernza® domestication was the part-time project of one scientist at The Land Institute (TLI). It was, however, a surprisingly successful project given the limited resources invested to that point. Therefore, in 2010, Lee DeHaan, PhD, was assigned to the project full-time to accelerate the domestication work and expand it through collaborations with other institutions. Results at this point were showing great potential to increase the yield through plant breeding and to develop products with great flavor and nutritional properties. Furthermore, the potential of perennial crops to dramatically improve soil health and sustainability was becoming widely recognized. Therefore, many collaborators soon joined in the research effort. Expansion of the research was expedited by increasing investment in this area by private philanthropists, federal grant programs, and state/provincial funding. Yield of Kernza is strictly limited by the genetic potential of the seed currently available. Breeding programs for diverse regions are therefore a top priority. Currently, four breeding programs are underway in Utah, Minnesota, and Manitoba, and Kansas. These programs collaborate, but they are developing plant types uniquely adapted to each of the different regions. Techniques for growing Kernza that maximize both yield and sustainability are needed as farmers begin to plant expanded fields. Intercropping, grazing, burning, and thinning are being tested experimentally to determine their impacts on crop yield, profitability, and important sustainability metrics such as carbon sequestration in soils. Since management techniques have different impacts depending on soil and climate, these trials must be conducted across the full geographic range where Kernza will be grown.
    [Show full text]