Dr. Wes Jackson

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Environmental Science Program Creighton University - Presents Dr. Wes Jackson Wes Jackson is a leading thinker in the international sustainable agriculture movement. Founder and president of The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, he has pioneered research in Natural Systems Agriculture — including perennial grains, perennial polycultures, and intercropping. The work of the Land Institute has been featured in many media outlets including the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Audubon, MacNeil‐Lehrer News Hour, and All Things Considered. Life magazine predicted Wes Jackson will be among the 100 "most important Americans of the 20th century." He is a recipient of the Pew Conservation Scholars award and a MacArthur Fellowship, and has been listed as one of Smithsonian's "35 Who Made a Difference". Wes has an M.A. in botany from University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in genetics from North Carolina State University. He was a professor of biology at Kansas Wesleyan and later established the Environmental Studies program at California State University, Sacramento, where he became a tenured full professor. He is the author of several books including Becoming Native to This Place (1994), Altars of Unhewn Stone (1987), and New Roots for Agriculture (1980). We Can Now Solve the Oldest Environmental Problem Friday, April 11 - 3:00 P.M Mike and Josie Harper Center Ballroom - Creighton University All are welcome to attend this presentation. Dr. Jackson’s visit to Creighton is being co‐sponsored by: the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology, Department of Sociology, Department of Atmospheric Science, Program in Justice and Peace Studies, Center for Catholic Thought, Environmental Science Student Club and Biology Student Club. For more information or to set up individual or group meetings with Dr. Jackson, please contact Peggy Smith in the Environmental Science Program, [email protected]; 402‐280‐2811 .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

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]
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 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]
Closing the Gap Between Grasslands and Grain Agriculture
CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN GRASSLANDS AND GRAIN AGRICULTURE Timothy E. Crews* I. INTRODUCTION Grasslands are among the biomes that have been most extensively degraded or eliminated by the expansion of agriculture.' Grasslands are also threatened by development, poor management, and climate change. 2 This expansion of agriculture has prompted intense concern amongst conservation biologists, as grasslands provide critical habitat for thousands of wild plant and animal species. Less attention has been focused on the non-biodiversity ecosystem services that intact natural grasslands provide. Services such as soil protection, carbon sequestration, water purification are essentially taken for granted when ecosystems provide them for free. 4 1n contrast, row crop agriculture has received growing recognition as a problematic source of ecosystem disservices.5 As will be discussed in this article, soil erosion, nutrient leakage, weed establishment, loss of soil organic matter, agrochemical and fossil fuel dependence are all * Tim Crews is Director of Research and an ecologist at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. He is broadly interested in how natural ecosystems can inform the design of highly sustainable agroecosystems. Dr. Crews' research focuses on a range of ecological processes and functions that improve when low-diversity annual grain agroecosystems are replaced by high diversity perennial grain agroecosystems. Before coming to The Land Institute in September 2012, Crews was a Professor of Environmental Studies and Agroecology at Prescott College in Arizona. He was a visiting researcher in Australia with CSIRO in 2002 and with Rothamsted Research in the U.K in 2009. Dr. Crews received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and was an Ecology post-doc fellow at Stanford University.
[Show full text]
The Land Report Is Published Three BOARD of DIRECTORS: Sally the Previous Day, 15 Friends of the Times a Year
The L and Report A publication of The Land Institute | Number 70 | Summer 2001 25th Anniversary Issue Contents Energy in Agriculture and Society: Insights from the Sunshine Farm by Marty Bender . 3 The Emperor’s New Chromosomes by Stan Cox . 6 The Land at 25 . 9 Seeking Harmony Beyond Hard Facts by Wes Jackson . 20 On Freedom and Wisdom by Learned Hand . 21 At the Land . 22 Graduates’ Study of Natural Systems Agriculture . 25 Our Mission Statement Memorials and Honorary Gifts . 27 When people, land and community are as one, all three members prosper; Contributors . 28 when they relate not as members but as Prairie Festival 2000 Audiotape Order Form . 30 competing interests, all three are A Big View of Industrial Agriculture’s Effects . 31 exploited. By consulting nature as the Friend of The Land and source and measure of that member - Prairie Festival 2001 Registration . 31 ship, The Land Institute seeks to develop an agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned while promoting a community life at once prosperous and enduring. Cover: Terry Evans . On Oct. 16, 1976, six weeks after our first session began, fire destroyed the classroom building, which had all of the books and tools. This picture was taken three weeks later, Nov. 6. The Land Report is published three BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Sally The previous day, 15 friends of The times a year. Cole, Terry Evans, Pete Ferrell, Land worked from daylight until Charles Francis, Amy Goldman, dusk on a log structure at the site of Editor: Wes Jackson Wes Jackson, Rhonda Janke, the burned building.
[Show full text]
The Land Report a Publication of the Land Institute / Number 84 / Spring 2006
The Land Report A publication of The Land Institute / Number 84 / Spring 2006 Civilization’s weedy roots Contents Natural systems living Carl N. McDaniel ............................................................ 3 The Land Institute Ambiance mission statement Dana Wildsmith .............................................................. 7 When people, land and community are as one, Civilization’s weedy roots all three members prosper; when they relate not Stan Cox .......................................................................... 8 as members but as competing interests, all three are exploited. By consulting nature as the source At the Land .................................................................. 11 and measure of that membership, The Land Institute seeks to develop an agriculture that Leland will save soil from being lost or poisoned, while Wes Jackson .................................................................. 12 promoting a community life at once prosperous and enduring. Prairie Festival 2006 ................................................... 17 Soil out of Africa Lee DeHaan .................................................................. 18 Land Institute staff Land Institute Ron Armstrong Board of Directors Free borders make good neighbors Scott Bontz Anne Simpson Byrne Wylie Harris .................................................................. 19 Cindy Cox Strachan Donnelley Sheila Cox Terry Evans Ask Marty Stan Cox Pete Ferrell Scott Bontz ...................................................................
[Show 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.
[Show full text]
Social and Sustainable Art Practices Fall 2015, Syllabus General Course Information
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Department of Visual Art ART 300 + 500 Special Topics in Art: Social and Sustainable Art Practices Fall 2015, Syllabus General Course Information Social and Sustainable Art Practices (SSAP) will explore with three contemporary issues integral to human life today, agricultural production, habitat development and social/civic expressions. We will tackle these topics through 1) Engaged learning projects, in addition to 2) Discussion and 3) Written formal reflection papers. SSAP is an immersive experience bringing together lectures from leaders in the fields of biology, land-use, bee-keeping, and socially conscious art together with selected readings from landmark and contemporary writers. Students will be guided in hands-on building activities for the purposes of creative practicality. We will encounter the phases of creative practice (inception, commencement, confusion, assessment, application and resolve) as we reflect how action changes thinking. Ultimately, we will attempt to contribute the complex topics of climate change, the sustainability idea and the social dynamics of class and division. Purpose To disspel the myth that topics in sustainability and creativity are elitist constructs by emphasizing the inherent accessibility of each, especially as these ideas regard human relations. To provide those who identify as “non-creative” opportunities to engage in creative work and thereby aid in an exploration of and amendment to their definition of creativity; to offer those who indentify as “creative” the same opportunity. To provide students the opportunity to be creatively involved in projects related to habitat, agriculture and civic visual discourse, especially as these topics relate to issues surrounding climate change and sustainability and class division.
[Show full text]
Distinguished Service Citation
Society Actions DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CITATION The Distinguished Service Citation is given to an ecologist for long and distinguished service to the Society, to the larger scientific community, or to the larger purpose of application of ecology in the public welfare. This year’s recipient is Dr. Wes Jackson of the Land Institute. Dr. Wes Jackson started his career as an academic biologist, working his way up to the rank of a tenured full professor at California State University, Sacramento. But in 1976 he resigned and went back to his roots in rural Kansas to found The Land Institute at Salina, Kansas, where he remains as President to this day. Through this Institute, and through his speaking engagements and his influential writings aimed at the public, Dr. Jackson has championed the cause of an ecologically rational and sustainable agriculture. His stance toward sustainability dovetails with the Ecological Society of America’s own longstanding concern with informing national policy on environmental issues. In a series of eloquent and passionately written books, including Altars of Unhewn Stone, New Roots for Agriculture, Becoming Native to This Place, Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture, Dr. Wes Jackson has developed a conceptual framework for agriculture that emphasizes messages drawn from natural ecosystems. Modern agriculture all too often involves mining the soil, with vast losses via erosion due to annual tilling; the heavy-handed use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, which end up poisoning the water and air and unnaturally altering the nutrient pools and dynamics of many communities and ecosystems; and, last and maybe worst, a dependency upon fossil fuels, the extraction, distribution, and use of which itself spawns a wide range of potentially catastrophic environmental woes.
[Show full text]