Land Report Number 115, Summer 2016 · The Land Institute About The Land Institute MISSION STATEMENT DIRECTORS When people, land and community are as one, all three members Christina Lee Brown prosper; when they relate not as members but as competing inter- Brian Donahue 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 Kenneth Levy-Church OUR WORK Michelle Mack Thousands of new perennial grain plants live year-round at The Land Patrick McLarney Institute, prototypes we developed in pursuit of a new agriculture Leigh Merinoff Conn Nugent that mimics natural ecosystems. Grown in polycultures, perennial Victoria Ranney (emeritus) crops require less fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide. Their root sys- Lloyd Schermer (emeritus) John Simpson tems are massive. They manage water better, exchange nutrients 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- stores the soil’s capacity to hold carbon. Our aim is to make conser- STAFF vation a consequence, not a casualty, of agricultural production. Scott Allegrucci Jamie Bugel Carrie Carpenter LAND REPORT Marty Christians Land Report is published three times a year. issn 1093-1171. The edi- Sheila Cox Stan Cox tor is Scott Bontz. To use material from the magazine, reach him at Tim Crews [email protected], or the address or phone number below. Lee DeHaan Ti≠any Durr Ron Fent ELECTRONIC MEDIA Adam Gorrell For e-mail news about The Land Institute, write to Carrie Carpenter John Holmquist Stephanie Hutchinson at [email protected], or call. Web site: landinstitute.org. Wes Jackson Patricia Johnson Laura Kemp SUPPORT Ron Kinkelaar To help The Land Institute, see the contribution form on page 30, or John Mai go to landinstitute.org. Contributors receive the Land Report. Randy Mathews Pheonah Nabukalu Jayne Norlin TO REACH US Scott Seirer The Land Institute Rachel Stroer 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 115, Summer 2016 · The Land Institute 4 A toast with Kernza 24 The ecosphere constituency A beer scheduled for release in October Wes Jackson is retiring as Land will be the first widely sold product Institute president and will work for using a perennial grain developed at seeing the earth as a creative home The Land Institute. rather than only as resource or environ- ment. 9 The view from 40 Stories and a Prairie Festival about The 28 The president-select Land Institute’s first four decades, and Wes Jackson’s replacement to lead The the thinking for its future. Land Institute, Fred Iutzi, grew up on a farm and works for rural community, 10 The family enterprise and in graduate school thrived on fel- Dana Jackson tells what it was like to lowship with the institute’s scientists. simultaneously homestead and build The Land Institute. 34 Gene Logsdon, homecomer The contrary farmer – and prolific agri- 16 Back home to farm cultural writer – has died. Nancy Vogelsberg-Busch was in the first class of students at The Land 35 Thanks to our contributors Institute. After that, though she hadn’t grown up expecting to farm, it’s what 37 Prairie Festival recordings she wanted to do, and did. 20 The path to the berry farm 38 Land Institute donations While a Land Institute intern, Robin Mittenthal grew to like growing things, and learned how much he liked ex- plaining them. Cover Maya Kathrineberg and Marty Christians cut and bag heads of intermediate wheatgrass at The Land Institute. Wheatgrass will become the first Land Institute plant used in a widely sold product. See page 4. Scott Bontz photo. THE LAND INSTITUTE 3 Each intermediate wheatgrass plant’s selected heads go in a labeled bag. Later comes measuring grain size and weight. These measurements are short of annual wheat’s, but over generations of breeding they have gained. The perennial grain is already attractive enough for Patagonia Provisions to put it in beer. Scott Bontz photo. 4 LAND REPORT A toast to (and with) Kernza Perennial grains enjoy more researchers, and a commercial beer scott bontz he outfitter Patagonia plans an nations to talk about perennial grains and October release of the first large- their agricultural ecology. That confer- scale product using a perennial ence was broader and more exploratory; its grain from The Land Institute. groups of researchers interested in silphium TLong Root Ale, its grain ingredients 15 per- and Kernza were smaller. The gatherings cent Kernza, will be sold on the West Coast. this year show how interest has mounted, A much bigger company, General Mills, partly because of how the institute’s budget might take several years to offer wheatgrass growth has helped it enlist other organiza- among its dozens of products, but it is test- tions. ing. The roots of perennials typically reach Both companies want to develop goods much deeper than those of annuals, and with food raised more sustainably, and in better cycle water and nutrients as well as early July they sent representatives to a secure soil. Hence the name of the new beer conference for development of the perennial from Patagonia Provisions, the outfitter’s called intermediate wheatgrass. Kernza is a young food products division. Long Root trademark registered by The Land Institute samples have been offered at showings of for food products made from wheatgrass. the film “Unbroken Ground,” which con- Researcher and conference organizer Lee nects food choices and climate change, and DeHaan told three dozen attendees that he includes interviews with DeHaan and Land thought it the first meeting of such size for Institute President Wes Jackson. These a single perennial-grain candidate. He was events are mostly at Patagonia stores on the happy to see this happen just 13 years after West Coast, but the tour first hit New York starting selection and breeding. The insti- City, Washington, DC, and Chicago, and tute generally estimates that to develop a will go to Hawaii. species suitable for widespread planting will Most of the grain in the new ale re- take at least three decades. mains malted barley. James R. Farag, prod- A month earlier a similar gather- uct manager for Patagonia Provisions, said ing drew from as far as Argentina a dozen extant malting machinery did not work researchers involved or interested in the with Kernza’s smaller seed. The company perennial oilseed crop candidate called sil- is working to solve the problem. This is phium. one of many improvements remaining for The meetings came less than two years wheatgrass to be grown, processed, and after The Land Institute invited more than sold widely as a grain crop. But even estab- 50 biologists and social scientists from 10 lished grain crops are never finished like a THE LAND INSTITUTE 5 manufactured product can be, if for no other Hopworks because it is organic and qualifies reason than the endless work of finding re- as a “benefit corporation” for how it treats sistance to evolving pests and diseases. workers and considers its effects outside The first batch of Long Root will be the business. “We are dedicated to growing 5,000 to 6,000 cases, with 24 cans per case, Kernza with organic and regenerative prac- and made at Hopworks Urban Brewery tices,” said Birgit Cameron, senior director in Portland, Oregon. Patagonia is explor- of Patagonia Provisions. In 2014 the company ing breweries in other regions, but chose paid for 54 acres of wheatgrass production Sheila Cox transfers silphium seeds that have sprouted on wet paper and proven viable. This wild plant in the sunflower family is being developed as an oilseed crop. Scott Bontz photo. 6 LAND REPORT in Minnesota. For 2015-16 the acreage ex- said demand now exceeds supply. On the panded to 75. The hope for next year is more buying end, Zachary Golper told of experi- than 125 acres. ments with wheatgrass bread at his Bien The Perennial, a restaurant in San Cuit bakery in Brooklyn, New York. Francisco, serves bread made with Kernza, The silphium meeting included Jared Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prasifka, who at the US Department of has served wheatgrass waffles and tortillas, Agriculture in Fargo, North Dakota, studies and The Land Institute has sold small bags plants provided by Land Institute researcher of flour. But until now no product with David Van Tassel. He identifies insect pests, Patagonia’s reach has used one of the insti- gauges what damage they do, and thinks of tute’s perennial grains. how to cut losses. General Mills, a company worth more At the University of Minnesota popu- than $20 billion, would need thousands of lation geneticist Yaniv Brandvain studies acres of wheatgrass, whether to make one how species occur and how they last. The breakfast cereal dedicated wholly to Kernza, genus silphium provides a good opportunity or to spread small percentages of Kernza for this, and the results could help identify across the company’s many products, which which species in the genus are related close- include the brand names Cheerios and ly enough to be used in breeding. Existing Cocoa Puffs, and the more health-conscious crop plants were almost all domesticated presentations Nature Valley, Cascadian thousands of years ago, and in the process Farm, and Annie’s Homegrown.