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Land Report Number 107, Fall 2013 · the Land Institute About the Land Institute Land Report Number 107, Fall 2013 · The Land Institute About The Land Institute MISSION STATEMENT DIRECTORS When people, land and community are as one, all three members Anne Simpson Byrne 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 measure of that membership, The Land Institute seeks to develop an Terry Evans (emeritus) Pete Ferrell agriculture that will save soil from being lost or poisoned, while pro- Jan Flora moting a community life at once prosperous and enduring. Eric Gimon Wes Jackson Michelle Mack OUR WORK Patrick McLarney Thousands of new perennial grain plants live year-round at The Land Leigh Merinof Institute, prototypes we developed in pursuit of a new agriculture Conn Nugent Victoria Ranney (emeritus) that mimics natural ecosystems. Grown in polycultures, perennial Lloyd Schermer (emeritus) crops require less fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide. Their root sys- John Simpson tems are massive. They manage water better, exchange nutrients Ken Warren Donald Worster more e∞ciently and hold soil against the erosion of water and wind. Angus Wright This strengthens the plants’ resilience to weather extremes, and re- STAFF stores the soil’s capacity to hold carbon. Our aim is to make conser- Kris Boele vation a consequence, not a casualty, of agricultural production. Carrie Carpenter Marty Christians LAND REPORT Sheila Cox 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 [email protected], or the address or phone number below. Ti≠any Durr Ron Fent Adam Gorrell ELECTRONIC MEDIA Stephanie Hutchinson For e-mail news about The Land Institute, write to Carrie Carpenter Wes Jackson Patricia Johnson at [email protected], or call. Web site: landinstitute.org. Laura Kemp Ron Kinkelaar John Mai SUPPORT Pheonah Nabukalu To help The Land Institute, see the contribution form on page 30, or Jayne Norlin go to landinstitute.org. Funders receive the Land Report. Tom Reid Steve Renich John Schmidt TO REACH US Duane Schrag The Land Institute Scott Seirer Freddie Smith 2440 E. Water Well Road, Salina, KS 67401 Josh Svaty phone 785-823-5376 David Van Tassel fax 785-823-8728 Cindy Thompson Shuwen Wang [email protected] Darlene Wolf 2 LAND REPORT Land Report Number 107, Fall 2013 · The Land Institute 4 Sorghum work for Africa A new Land Institute scientist seeks genes to make grain sorghum a perennial. We also will send sorghum to be bred with local varieties and tested in Ethiopia, Mali, and South Africa, where it is a major food crop. 6 Land Institute shorts Study of whether cereal crops might fix nitrogen. Gifts of land. Talking about perennial grains to the UN’s food and agriculture arm. New board members. Attention from national media. 10 Nn A history of the most important invention of the 20th century, including how it changed the human popula- tion and ecosystems, and how its disruptions can be countered with perennial grains. 25 Doubt and hope People attending the Prairie Festival’s address of destructive economic growth share their fears that humanity won’t stop the consumption until forced, and their inspiration from festival ideas and cohorts. 28 Thanks to our contributors 29 Prairie Festival 2013 recordings 30 Donation form Cover Greenhouse manager Tifany Durr waters seedlings of Kernza, a perennial grass that The Land Institute is develop- ing as a grain crop. These progeny are from crosses of select plants. The approximately 15,000 seedlings were moved to the field in mid-November. Scott Bontz photo. THE LAND INSTITUTE 3 Pheonah Nabukalu seeks the genes for perenniality in sorghum-johnsongrass hybrids. Scott Seirer photo. 4 LAND REPORT Sorghum work for Africa $650,000 to isolate genes and breed Kansas plants with sub-Saharan varieties he Land Institute and collabora- ating more than a dozen traits observed in tors won grants to help make plants and grain with the genetic markers grain sorghum both a perennial being deciphered by Andrew Paterson, head and a better crop in Africa, where of the Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory at Tthe plant is a major human food grown by Georgia. small farmers in often marginal soils and Paterson also will lead the use of a tough climate. Improved sorghum should $5 million grant from the US Agency for help conserve that soil, along with the richer International Development, with $500,000 but eroding soil of the American Plains. It coming to The Land Institute over five years, also will make up for the Green Revolution, to get its sorghum strains to Africa, breed which dramatically boosted corn, wheat, them with locally adapted varieties, and and rice yields, but overlooked sorghum, test how the ofspring perform. Winter- which naturally better handles drought and hardiness will not be a problem in Africa, so has untapped genetic potential. Cox can send plants selected solely for traits A USDA grant for $150,000 will fund a like grain production and development of new Land Institute scientist, Pheonah Na- the underground stems called rhizomes. bukalu, who comes from Uganda by way of The rest of the USAID money will pay for a doctorate from Louisiana State University, the work in Ethiopia, Mali, and South Af- to connect results in the field with genetic rica. The collaborator in Ethiopia is Jimma mapping at the University of Georgia. This University. Overseeing the other locations is two-year project uses 500 sorghum lines the International Crops Research Institute developed over the past four years at The for the Semi-Arid Tropics, which is based in Land Institute by crossing annual grain India, and where Cox once worked. crop plants with a wild perennial relative, The diverse but dry and fragile Sahel johnsongrass. It should help resolve how region between the Sahara and the more to precisely breed into the annual crop the humid savannas and woodlands of central overwintering ability of johnsongrass, but Africa is pressured by a population of more exclude unwanted traits. For more than than 100 million and annually growing by 2.8 a decade institute breeder Stan Cox has percent. Some get nearly 40 percent of their worked with these crosses and selection, calories from sorghum. Based on tonnage, developing plants with bigger seed that are sorghum is the fifth most important grain increasingly able to survive Kansas win- crop, grown in India, China, Brazil, and the ters. But the hybrids are years away from US southern Plains. Here it is almost entirely being ready for the farm, and the genes for livestock. Climate change plus increasing responsible for perenniality remain hidden. population and demand for water will make Nabukalu will work to find them by associ- it more important as human food. THE LAND INSTITUTE 5 Land Institute shorts Study to see whether cereal which gives perenniality to our sorghum, so crops can fix nitrogen far are not clear. The Land Institute seeks to know if The Land Institute has hired a scientist any of the plants it is developing as peren- from India, Sivi Damaraju, to study whether nial grain crops already fix nitrogen, and bacteria living in some grain crops or wild whether the trait can be added or improved grasses can pull nitrogen from the air to through selection and breeding. support their growth. As crops, such plants could help farmers avoid costly synthesized The Land receives farm nitrogen, and reduce water pollution and near University of Kansas greenhouse gases. (See the feature story about nitrogen on page 10.) Damaraju had A former energy executive and his wife been working as a post-doctoral researcher donated to The Land Institute their 19th- at Kansas State University. He will start here century stone house and 65 acres of pasture on December 1. Private grants will fund a and woodland, valued at $1.2 million and study expected to last 12 to 18 months. 10 minutes from the University of Kansas. Farmers long have known that for- The unexpected gift from Jim and Cindy age legumes such as alfalfa and clover help Haines does not just expand the institute’s boost production by crops that follow them research space, but also is a boon for col- in rotations. Bacteria in nodules on legume laboration: in recent months, Land Institute roots convert atmospheric nitrogen to a researchers have been laying the ground- form that plants can use to build tissue. In work for a consortium with KU and Kansas return, plants feed sugars to the bacteria. State University to advance perennial-grain Scientists recently have explored whether breeding and companion ecological study. plants other than legumes have similar The aim is more opportunities for study and nitrogen-fixing ability, only in a looser as- work, around the world, in this new agricul- sociation with the bacteria, which either live ture. The donated property includes 50 acres between the plants’ cells, not at committed of brome grass cropped for hay, which could nodules, or live free in soil near the roots. be devoted to ecology studies and perennial- This kind of arrangement might explain how grain trials. for centuries Hopi farmers in Arizona got Jim Haines directed Westar Energy, more protein-building nitrogen from their one of the largest utilities in Kansas. Cindy corn than was contributed by legumes or Haines reviews films for National Public manure – none – or by lightning – only a Radio afliate KCUR in Kansas City and little. Sugarcane has been shown to clearly teaches film courses at the University of have this ability.
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