The Land Institute

Last updated
The Land Institute
Formation1 August 1976 (1976-08-01) [1]
Founders Wes Jackson, Dana Jackson
TypeNonprofit organization
48-0842156
PurposeAgricultural and social research
HeadquartersSalina, Kansas
Location
President
Rachel Stroer
Chief Scientist
Tim Crews
Chief Impact Officer
Amy Cole
Chief Operating Officer
Tracie Thomas
Chairperson of the Board
Key people
Julia Ollmsted
Budget (2020)
$6 million USD
Revenue (2020)
$6 million USD
Staff (2020)
50
Website landinstitute.org

The Land Institute is an American nonprofit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture, based in Salina, Kansas. Their goal is to develop an agricultural system based on perennial crops that "has the ecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield comparable to that from annual crops". [3]

Contents

History

The institute was founded on 11 hectares (28 acres) in 1976 by plant geneticist and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient Wes Jackson along with Dana Jackson, who has worked with the Land Stewardship Project in Minnesota. [1] [4] [5]

The Land Institute promotes "natural systems agriculture" through plant breeding. [6] Using selective breeding and other techniques, they are working to domesticate wild perennials. [7] The organization's concept of developing perennial crops is modeled after the ecological design of prairies, which are known for their soil quality, deep root systems, and self-sufficiency. [6] [8] [9] In an interview, Wes Jackson called the concept "an inversion of industrial agriculture." [6] Perennial polyculture systems may have a variety of benefits over conventional annual monocultures such as increased biodiversity, reduced soil erosion, and reduced inputs of irrigation, fossil fuels, fertilizers, and pesticides. [10] [11] Perennial crops also show promise in root-based carbon sequestration. [12] [13] [14] The organization's achievement of productive and genetically stable perennial crop plants for use by farmers is expected to take several decades. [15] [8] Critics note the future economic challenge in profitably harvesting perennial polyculture. [11]

Since 1979, The Land Institute has annually hosted its Prairie Festival, which includes lectures, art displays, tours, and music performances. [16] [17]

Kernza

Harvesting a Thinopyrum intermedium breeding nursery at The Land Institute Harvesting Cycle 2 Thinopyrum intermedium.jpg
Harvesting a Thinopyrum intermedium breeding nursery at The Land Institute

Kernza, an intermediate wheatgrass developed by The Land Institute, is the first commercial perennial grain crop grown across the northern United States. A perennial grain is a grain crop that lives and remains productive for three or more years. Rather than growing for only one season before harvest, like most grains and annual crops, perennial grains grow year after year. After two decades of plant breeding over 11 cycles, The Land Institute has domesticated a form of wheatgrass whose seeds are two to three times bigger than those of its wild ancestor. Under ideal conditions, it can provide as much as 30 percent of the yield of traditional wheat. They call their trademarked creation Kernza—an amalgamation of "kernel" and "Kansas". [18]

The University of Minnesota has one of the largest Kernza breeding programs in the country. Scientists at the University are selectively breeding the plant to improve some of the current issues, particularly those concerning yields. Their "Forever Green Initiative" has attracted interest from large agricultural producers like General Mills and also smaller local food shops like the Birchwood Cafe. [19]

The General Mills brand Cascadian Farm has incorporated Kernza into some of its foods, with the first Kernza cereal produced in 2019. [20] Cascadian Farm agreed to purchase an initial amount of the perennial grain, which is driving farmers to plant on commercial-scale fields versus the test sized plots currently being grown.

Products

Kernza breeding has dramatically increased seed size and production, hastening the timeline of commercialization, and resulting in the release of the first widely-available Kernza product, Long Root Ale from Patagonia Provisions, in 2016. The initiative and investment on the part of Patagonia Provisions to bring Long Root Ale to market led to other partnerships and potential Kernza products becoming more widely available to consumers. Currently, there are a number of restaurants serving products made with Kernza, including Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis, Cafe Gratitude in the Los Angeles metro, and Avalanche Pizza in Athens, Ohio. [21]

After the Birchwood Cafe received a 50-pound bag of grain from the University of Minnesota researchers they began baking crackers, pancakes, tortillas, and puffed grain desserts. [19]

Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, brewed Long Root Ale for Patagonia Provisions and has it on tap, in addition to the ale in four-pack cans being sold in Whole Foods in California. Bang! Brewing in St. Paul, Minnesota, has a Kernza beer available, as does Blue Skye Brewery nearby in Salina, Kansas. Innovative Dumpling & Strand produces Kernza pasta that they retail through Twin Cities-area farmers' markets. The Minneapolis based Fair State Brewing Cooperative partnered with Northern outfitter Askov Finlayson in 2018 to produce Keep the North Cold, a golden ale brewed with Kernza. [22]

In 2024 Patagonia Provisions released a line of durum wheat and Kernza pasta. [23]

Ecological benefits

With perennial soil cover such as that provided by Kernza, farmers stand to greatly reduce soil erosion, potentially turning agriculture into a soil-forming ecosystem, much like the natural ecosystems it replaced. Initial research suggests that due to extensive perennial roots, Kernza and other perennial crops may nurture beneficial soil microbiomes. The frequent soil disturbance required in annual crop production is disruptive to these microbiomes.

Deeper and more abundant root systems drive healthy soil. Scientific evidence documenting the ecosystem benefits of Kernza is accumulating. Research from other perennial systems such as pastures and perennial biofuel crops provide robust evidence of the potential benefits of a perennial grain like Kernza.

For example, Paustian and colleagues published in 2016 a paper in Nature titled "Climate-Smart Soils" that compares different landscape management approaches for increasing soil carbon sequestration. [24] It is clear from their analysis that perennial grains would be a game-changer, as they could sequester carbon and maintain more cropland in production better than any alternative. [25]

Perennial Grains Story Project

The Perennial Grains Story Project is a strategic communications collaborative whose goal is to sustain enthusiasm and support for perennial grain polyculture development, and Kernza use in particular, as part of a holistic vision for more truly sustainable food production. The partnership is enhancing internal communications among Kernza users and breeders, while working to create communications products that serve the diversity of partner goals and interest.

Appearances in published works

The Land Institute's work was featured in Michael Pollan's New York Times best-seller The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals . [26] [27] The general modus operandi of developing a sustainable, high yield, low labor, agricultural model based on the culturation of crop polycultures, developed by The Land Institute forms the substance of the chapter "How Will We Feed Ourselves?" in Janine Benyus's book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. [28]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cereal</span> Grass that has edible grain

A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize. Edible grains from other plant families, such as buckwheat and quinoa are pseudocereals. Most cereals are annuals, producing one crop from each planting, though rice is sometimes grown as a perennial. Winter varieties are hardy enough to be planted in the autumn, becoming dormant in the winter, and harvested in spring or early summer; spring varieties are planted in spring and harvested in late summer. The term cereal is derived from the name of the Roman goddess of grain crops and fertility, Ceres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crop rotation</span> Agricultural practice of changing crops

Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. This practice reduces the reliance of crops on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, along with the probability of developing resistant pests and weeds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intensive farming</span> Branch of agricultire

Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming, conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area. It is characterized by a low fallow ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital, labour, agrochemicals and water, and higher crop yields per unit land area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grassland</span> Area with vegetation dominated by grasses

A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica and are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. Furthermore, grasslands are one of the largest biomes on Earth and dominate the landscape worldwide. There are different types of grasslands: natural grasslands, semi-natural grasslands, and agricultural grasslands. They cover 31–69% of the Earth's land area.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to sustainable agriculture:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable agriculture</span> Farming approach that balances environmental, economic and social factors in the long term

Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem services. There are many methods to increase the sustainability of agriculture. When developing agriculture within sustainable food systems, it is important to develop flexible business process and farming practices. Agriculture has an enormous environmental footprint, playing a significant role in causing climate change, water scarcity, water pollution, land degradation, deforestation and other processes; it is simultaneously causing environmental changes and being impacted by these changes. Sustainable agriculture consists of environment friendly methods of farming that allow the production of crops or livestock without damage to human or natural systems. It involves preventing adverse effects to soil, water, biodiversity, surrounding or downstream resources—as well as to those working or living on the farm or in neighboring areas. Elements of sustainable agriculture can include permaculture, agroforestry, mixed farming, multiple cropping, and crop rotation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polyculture</span> Growing multiple crops together in agriculture

In agriculture, polyculture is the practice of growing more than one crop species together in the same place at the same time, in contrast to monoculture, which had become the dominant approach in developed countries by 1950. Traditional examples include the intercropping of the Three Sisters, namely maize, beans, and squashes, by indigenous peoples of Central and North America, the rice-fish systems of Asia, and the complex mixed cropping systems of Nigeria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wes Jackson</span> American geneticist

Wes Jackson co-founded the Land Institute with Dana Jackson. He is also a member of the World Future Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agroforestry</span> Land use management system

Agroforestry is a land use management system that integrates trees with crops or pasture. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies. As a polyculture system, an agroforestry system can produce timber and wood products, fruits, nuts, other edible plant products, edible mushrooms, medicinal plants, ornamental plants, animals and animal products, and other products from both domesticated and wild species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prairie restoration</span> Conservation efforts focused on prairie lands

Prairie restoration is a conservation effort to restore prairie lands that were destroyed due to industrial, agricultural, commercial, or residential development. The primary aim is to return areas and ecosystems to their previous state before their depletion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energy crop</span> Crops grown solely for energy production by combustion

Energy crops are low-cost and low-maintenance crops grown solely for renewable bioenergy production. The crops are processed into solid, liquid or gaseous fuels, such as pellets, bioethanol or biogas. The fuels are burned to generate electrical power or heat.

<i>Miscanthus × giganteus</i> Species of grass

Miscanthus × giganteus, also known as the giant miscanthus, is a sterile hybrid of Miscanthus sinensis and Miscanthus sacchariflorus. It is a perennial grass with bamboo-like stems that can grow to heights of 3–4 metres (13 ft) in one season. Just like Pennisetum purpureum, Arundo donax and Saccharum ravennae, it is also called elephant grass.

<i>Thinopyrum intermedium</i> Species of flowering plant

Thinopyrum intermedium, known commonly as intermediate wheatgrass, is a sod-forming perennial grass in the Triticeae tribe of Pooideae native to Europe and Western Asia. It is part of a group of plants commonly called wheatgrasses because of the similarity of their seed heads or ears to common wheat. However, wheatgrasses generally are perennial, while wheat is an annual. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit as an ornamental.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perennial rice</span> Varieties of rice that can grow season after season without re-seeding

Perennial rice are varieties of long-lived rice that are capable of regrowing season after season without reseeding; they are being developed by plant geneticists at several institutions. Although these varieties are genetically distinct and will be adapted for different climates and cropping systems, their lifespan is so different from other kinds of rice that they are collectively called perennial rice. Perennial rice—like many other perennial plants—can spread by horizontal stems below or just above the surface of the soil but they also reproduce sexually by producing flowers, pollen and seeds. As with any other grain crop, it is the seeds that are harvested and eaten by humans.

Soil management is the application of operations, practices, and treatments to protect soil and enhance its performance. It includes soil conservation, soil amendment, and optimal soil health. In agriculture, some amount of soil management is needed both in nonorganic and organic types to prevent agricultural land from becoming poorly productive over decades. Organic farming in particular emphasizes optimal soil management, because it uses soil health as the exclusive or nearly exclusive source of its fertilization and pest control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perennial grain</span> Grain crops that remain productive for two or more years without replanting

A perennial grain is a grain crop that lives and remains productive for two or more years, rather than growing for only one season before harvest, like most grains and annual crops. While many fruit, nut and forage crops are long-lived perennial plants, all major grain crops presently used in large-scale agriculture are annuals or short-lived perennials grown as annuals. Scientists from several nations have argued that perennial versions of today's grain crops could be developed and that these perennial grains could make grain agriculture more sustainable.

Perennial crops are a perennial plant species that are cultivated and live longer than two years without the need of being replanted each year. Naturally perennial crops include many fruit and nut crops; some herbs and vegetables also qualify as perennial. Perennial crops have been cultivated for thousands of years; their cultivation differs from the mainstream annual agriculture because regular tilling is not required and this results in decreased soil erosion and increased soil health. Some perennial plants that are not cultivated as perennial crops are tomatoes, whose vines can live for several years but often freeze and die in winters outside of temperate climates, and potatoes which can live for more than two years but are usually harvested yearly. Despite making up 94% of plants on earth, perennials take up only 13% of global cropland. In contrast, grain crops take up about 70% of global cropland and global caloric consumption and are largely annual plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regenerative agriculture</span> Conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems

Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration, increasing resilience to climate change, and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soil regeneration</span>

Soil regeneration, as a particular form of ecological regeneration within the field of restoration ecology, is creating new soil and rejuvenating soil health by: minimizing the loss of topsoil, retaining more carbon than is depleted, boosting biodiversity, and maintaining proper water and nutrient cycling. This has many benefits, such as: soil sequestration of carbon in response to a growing threat of climate change, a reduced risk of soil erosion, and increased overall soil resilience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon farming</span> Agricultural methods that capture carbon

Carbon farming is a set of agricultural methods that aim to store carbon in the soil, crop roots, wood and leaves. The technical term for this is carbon sequestration. The overall goal of carbon farming is to create a net loss of carbon from the atmosphere. This is done by increasing the rate at which carbon is sequestered into soil and plant material. One option is to increase the soil's organic matter content. This can also aid plant growth, improve soil water retention capacity and reduce fertilizer use. Sustainable forest management is another tool that is used in carbon farming. Carbon farming is one component of climate-smart agriculture. It is also one of the methods for carbon dioxide removal (CDR).

References

  1. 1 2 "The Land Institute Official Website".
  2. ↑ "The Land Institute Official Website: Contact Us". Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  3. ↑ "The Land Institute Official Website: Vision & Mission".
  4. ↑ The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. "Meet the 1992 MacArthur Fellows" . Retrieved 2013-07-01.
  5. ↑ Jackson, Dana L. (1 April 2002). The Farm as Natural Habitat: Reconnecting Food Systems With Ecosystems. Island Press. ISBN   978-1-59726-269-9.
  6. 1 2 3 Shattuck, Kathryn (27 September 2012). "Q. and A.: Farming for an Uncertain Future". Green Blogs. The New York Times . Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  7. ↑ Kunzig, Robert (April 2011). "Perennial Solution". National Geographic . Archived from the original on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2014-12-31.
  8. 1 2 Thomas J. Goreau; Ronal W. Larson; Joanna Campe (4 December 2014). Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase. CRC Press. p. 17. ISBN   978-1-4665-9540-8.
  9. ↑ Bittman, Mark (22 October 2013). "Now This Is Natural Food". The Opinion Pages. The New York Times . Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  10. ↑ Simon Moffat, Anne (1996-11-29). "Agricultural Research: Higher Yielding Perennials Point the Way to New Crops". Science . 274 (5292): 1469–1470. doi:10.1126/science.274.5292.1469. S2CID   129205776 . Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  11. 1 2 Paul B. Thompson; W K Kellogg Chair in Agricultural Food and Community Ethics Paul B Thompson (25 July 2005). The Spirit of the Soil: Agriculture and Environmental Ethics. Routledge. pp. 123–124. ISBN   978-1-134-88442-1.
  12. ↑ de Oliveira, Gabriel; Brunsell, Nathaniel A.; Crews, Timothy E.; DeHaan, Lee R.; Vico, Giulia (2020-06-01). "Carbon and water relations in perennial Kernza (Thinopyrum intermedium): An overview". Plant Science. Food Security under Climate Change. 295: 110279. doi:10.1016/j.plantsci.2019.110279. ISSN   0168-9452. PMID   32534616. S2CID   204160767.
  13. ↑ Berman, Elizabeth; Welchel, Sarah (October 2011). "Paying for Perennialism: A Quest for Food and Funding". Issues in Science and Technology.
  14. ↑ Fineman, Julie (30 October 2014). "San Francisco's Perennial Is Beyond Farm to Fork: A Marriage of All Things Sustainable". The Blog: Green. The Huffington Post . Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  15. ↑ Friedland, Andrew; Relyea, Rick; Courard-Hauri, David; Jones, Ross; Weisburg, Susan (2012). Environmental Science for AP. New York, New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. p. 304. ISBN   978-0-7167-3849-7 . Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  16. ↑ "The Land Institute Official Website: 1st Prairie Festival" . Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  17. ↑ Shattuck, Kathryn (2 October 2012). "Out on the Prairie, Moon, Music and Lectures, Too". Salina Journal. Salina, Kansas, USA. The New York Times . Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  18. ↑ Kaplan, Sarah. "A recipe for fighting climate change and feeding the world". Washington Post. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  19. 1 2 "Birchwood Cafe's pancake recipe with Kernza, a greener grain". PBS NewsHour . 16 November 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  20. ↑ "Can This Breakfast Cereal Help Save The Planet?". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
  21. ↑ Jane Black (October 2, 2016). "Perennial wheat is an ecologist's dream; soon it may be what's for dinner". Washington Post .
  22. ↑ "Kernza fights climate change, and makes a tasty MN beer". 10 May 2018.
  23. ↑ "Organic Pasta". 14 April 2024.
  24. ↑ Paustian, Keith; Lehmann, Johannes; Ogle, Stephen; Reay, David; Robertson, G. Philip; Smith, Pete (April 7, 2016). "Climate-smart soils" (PDF). Nature . 532 (7597): 49–57. Bibcode:2016Natur.532...49P. doi:10.1038/nature17174. hdl: 2164/7569 . PMID   27078564. S2CID   205248025.
  25. ↑ Friedlander, Blaine (April 6, 2016). "'Climate-smart soils' may help balance the carbon budget". Cornell Chronicle . Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  26. ↑ Michael Pollan (2006). The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Penguin Group. ISBN   978-1-59420-082-3.
  27. ↑ "The 10 Best Books of 2006", The New York Times , December 12, 2006
  28. ↑ Benyus, Janine M (2002) [First published 1997]. "How Will We Feed Ourselves?". Biomimicry : innovation inspired by nature. New York: Perennial. ISBN   978-0-06-053322-9. OCLC   51226447.

38°46′08″N97°33′08″W / 38.76889°N 97.55222°W / 38.76889; -97.55222

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.