LAND REPORT THE LAND INSTITUTE ∙ FALL 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 101, fall 2011 4 At the Land 6 Overcoming Negative Relationships Scott Bontz 15 The Rival Sylvia Townsend Warner 16 “We Need a Merger” Scott Bontz 28 Prairie Festival recordings 29 Thanks to our contributors 31 The writers and artists 32 Donation form Cover: Intermediate Wheatgrass in a Mason Jar. Duane Schrag photo. Contents photo: An offspring combining traits of annual grain sorghum with a wild relative, to make a crop that won’t need replanting every year, will better conserve water and nutrients, and can take the heat. For the story, see page 6. Scott Bontz photo. At the Land NATIVE PRAIRIE PURCHASE ith money from a donor who didn’t want to be identi- Wfied, in October The Land Institute bought 37 acres of rare floodplain still in native prairie. Several years ago the owner, farmer Jim Duggan, had let institute researchers begin study of soil and nutri- ent flow in the rich, unplowed ground, and compare it with a neighboring wheat field. Duggan died last year, and his family wanted to sell the land near Niles. It is 15 miles away, but a valuable study benchmark for an organization aiming to pattern agri- culture after natural ecosystems. The earlier survey found that the hay of perennial plants continued to yield about as much protein- building nitrogen as the field of annual The Land Institute bought 37 acres of rare native bottomland prairie near Niles, Kansas. It’s a natural benchmark for modeling agriculture. Pictured, in 2006, are Land Institute researchers. Scott Bontz photo, from 2006. wheat, but without the wheat’s fertilizer. This bolstered evidence for the value of developing perennial grain crops. For more about the study, see the summer 2010 Land experiments started and strengthen working Report. relationships with important collabora- tors,” he said. He and a team of university minnesota wheatgrass work begins researchers recently won a $695,000, three- Beginning August 1, Land Institute research- year grant to fund this work. For getting this er Lee DeHaan spent six weeks enlisting the kind of help around the world, see a plan University of Minnesota to help him develop described by Wes Jackson on page 27. intermediate wheatgrass as a perennial grain crop. He designed experiments, orga- new fund-raising director nized and executed planting, and planned The Land Institute hired a successor to its research with food scientists. “It was a lot director of institutional advancement, Joan more hands-on than I had anticipated, but Jackson, who will retire. The new leader turned out to be a great opportunity to get of fund-raising staff will be Jayne Norlin. 4 LAND REPORT The Land Institute bought 37 acres of rare native bottomland prairie near Niles, Kansas. It’s a natural benchmark for modeling agriculture. Pictured, in 2006, are Land Institute researchers. Scott Bontz photo, from 2006. She comes from fund raising as an associate City Public Television. Land Institute staff vice president at Bethany College in nearby members spoke in Michigan, Minnesota, Lindsborg. Norlin plans to start December 1. Wyoming, Oregon, California, Connecticut, Jackson, who joined staff in1998 , will stay and Maryland. Upcoming events: November on as long as needed to train Norlin. 17, Charleston, South Carolina. November 30, Urbana, Illinois. December 4, Austin, presentations Texas. January 23-24, Chestnut Ridge, New Land Institute scientist Stan Cox argued York. March 6, Wichita, Kansas. March 29, for perennial grains in the English online Indianapolis. April 6-7, Stanford, California. edition of the Arab news service Aljazeera. April 25, Sioux City, Iowa. May 5, Overland The PBS television show “This American Park, Kansas. May 19, Deerfield, Illinois. For Land” included in episode 108 a version more, call us at 785-823-5376 or see Calendar of The Land Institute profile by Kansas at www.landinstitute.org. THE LAND INSTITUTE 5 6 LAND REPORT OVERCOMING NEGATIVE RELATIONSHIPS scott bontz oung sorghum is hard to tell from cuts of grain calories to the middlemen that corn. Later, instead of grow- are livestock will come to make even less ing covered ears at midstalk like sense than now. People will eat more grains corn, it raises above the rest of directly, and for good nutrition will demand Ythe plant a tight, heavy plume of bare seed. from these staples more diversity. Sorghum’s Another di≠erence is waxy leaves, which regrowth doesn’t yet pay o≠ enough for cut sorghum’s water losses in heat. Genes tropical farmers, who treat it as an annual. in corn say never mind the weather: pro- And on the Plains, that regrowth dies with duce or bust. Sorghum will try to wait out the first autumn freeze. But sorghum is a drought. Its average seed yield is less genetically nearer to perenniality than are than corn’s. But in the semiarid world, from other grains. It also can breed with a closely subsistence plots in Africa, sorghum’s birth- related Sorghum genus plant that overwinters place, to vast High Plains spreads, farmers all the way to Montana. And cold actually bet on sorghum’s dependability. Among US could help make it profitable. grains, it trails only corn and wheat. Most Cox works to see that livelong grain goes to livestock and export. But there is a sorghum. His cohorts at The Land Institute growing food market for sorghum, including have a like aim for sunflower, a prairie le- people who can’t tolerate gluten. gume called Illinois bundleflower, wheat, There’s something that soil can’t and wheat’s perennial cousin, intermediate productively tolerate, at least not without wheatgrass. Chinese colleagues are develop- transfusions by fertilizer, and even then, ing perennial rice. Corn appears in the o≠ing in most places not for the long run. That is elsewhere. (See this spring’s Land Report.) annual cropping. Here sorghum has even But that likely will require injecting genes, greater potential. It’s from the tropical sa- and Cox said, “We’re going to have peren- vannah, and after harvest at low latitude, it nial sorghum before perennial corn, I’m can grow again. Perennials relieve farmers pretty sure.” from planting each year, as they must with Still, he faces di≠icult genetic puzzles. annuals. Perennial establishment thwarts “I can select plenty of good-looking, rela- weeds. Perennials are vastly better than tively large-seeded plants in the fall and save annuals at conserving soil and nutrients. their seed,” he said, “but the winter-hardy This counts for more as population climbs plants that emerge the next spring in that and fossil energy noses down. Perennial nursery will be other plants, ones that will sorghum breeder Stan Cox said losing large not be close to as good. And when I sow Cross annual grain sorghum, far left, with perennial johnsongrass, then over generations breed out weediness for a perennial crop. For developments so far, see page 12. Scott Bontz photos. THE LAND INSTITUTE 7 Stan Cox checks seed of hybrid sorghum. The bag at left covered the head so flowers took only that plant’s pollen. Over generations this makes traits more consistent, and helps the breeder secure the traits most desired. 8 LAND REPORT seed from the good-looking selected plants, “When a biotech person tells you he’s their o≠spring are rarely if ever winter- going to transfer the waxy-leaf gene from hardy.” But knowledge gained patiently sorghum into corn and make corn drought- through years of examination and selection tolerant, don’t believe it,” Cox said.