Grounded in Science
With the challenges faced by traditional agriculture and the urgent demand to nourish an expanding global population, it’s evident that our methods of cultivating and harvesting food must evolve rapidly. Fortunately, organizations such as The Land Institute are dedicated to transitioning from annual crops to perennial grain varieties, steering the agricultural sector towards greater sustainability.
“The Land Institute is committed to building diverse agriculture systems centered on perennial grains, including cereals, legumes, and oilseeds,” explains Tammy Kimbler, Chief Communications Officer at The Land Institute.
Challenges in Current Agricultural Practices
Traditional farming often involves intensive monoculture cultivation and reliance on machinery powered by fossil fuels, alongside the use of pesticides, antibiotics, and nitrogen fertilizers to achieve substantial yields. This dependency leads to detrimental effects on the environment, including climate change, soil degradation, and pollution.
“Transitioning to perennial crops must cater to farmers’ ecological, economic, holistic, and social needs,” Kimbler notes. “A significant drawback of industrial monoculture farming is the limited variety of crops that can be cultivated.”
In addition to environmental concerns, the current agricultural model poses substantial health risks:
- Frequent antibiotic usage in livestock contributes to antibiotic resistance in humans.
- Pesticides, nitrates, and phosphorus adversely affect water quality in both rural and urban settings.
- Greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants compromise air quality and exacerbate climate change.
- Farmworkers exposed to hazardous substances face an increased risk of injuries and long-term health issues.
Advantages of Perennial Grains
Perennial grains provide a sustainable remedy to the challenges posed by contemporary agriculture. “Due to their nature, perennial plants are regenerative; once planted, they propagate naturally,” describes Kimbler. “They eliminate the need for replanting or tilling, allowing the soil to remain intact.” These crops present numerous benefits compared to annual varieties:
- Resilience to extreme weather events
- Protection against soil erosion and enhancement of soil structure
- Improved nutrient retention, carbon sequestration, and water absorption
- Mitigation of climate change effects
- Enhanced food and water security
Furthermore, these crops can provide economic stability for farmers by lowering costs associated with chemical inputs and the labor involved in annual planting and tillage.
Categories of Perennial Grains
The Land Institute has established a growing global network for perennial crops, legumes, and oilseeds across various regions including the U.S., China, Europe, South America, Australia, and sub-Saharan Africa:
- Kernza®: This is a trademarked variety of a cultivated perennial wheatgrass grain developed by The Land Institute, currently thriving in Europe.
- Sorghum: A tropical grass with high seed yield, actively cultivated in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Wheat: Hybrid varieties created by crossing annual durum wheat with wheatgrass species in the U.S.
- Rice: Support for the ongoing development of a perennial rice grain at Yunnan University in China, backed by The Land Institute and documented in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Sustainability in 2022.
- Oilseeds: The domestication of Silphium integrifolium as an oilseed alternative to annual sunflower and soybean crops is underway.
- Legumes: Perennial leguminous crops not only enhance soil fertility but also yield protein-rich seeds for human consumption.
The Case for Perennial Grain Crops
Anne Schwagerl, Vice President of the Minnesota Farmers Union (MFU), has been cultivating The Land Institute’s Kernza® since 2020.
Kernza® has significantly improved her farm’s soil resilience, protecting it from erosion caused by severe weather conditions. This transition has allowed Schwagerl to diversify her farming practices and mitigate the risks associated with climate variability.
Kernza® thrives by covering the soil, establishing sustainable root systems that stabilize the ground and enhance water absorption, which leads to reduced runoff. Additionally, Schwagerl benefits from harvesting grain that is marketed within the growing niche of small grain producers.
In essence, the adoption of perennial grains offers a viable solution to the myriad challenges that beset modern agriculture. Embracing a shift towards perennial systems could be crucial in ensuring a sustainable and regenerative food future.
The Land Institute promotes ecological intensification to tap into natural processes for enhancing soil fertility, managing pests, and minimizing the loss of soil, nutrients, and organic matter. This approach reduces reliance on synthetic inputs like pesticides and fertilizers, while increasing food production and fostering biodiversity.
Experts at The Land Institute are convinced that perennial grain crops can achieve levels of ecological intensification that have been unattainable in modern agriculture without the use of chemical inputs that have characterized industrial farming historically.
“Ecological intensification nurtures a living system. It necessitates selecting appropriate plant varieties and cultivating them in optimal combinations for specific soil types and local ecosystems to develop a sustainable and regenerative agricultural framework,” Kimbler asserts. “The soils that have long supported North America’s agriculture are deteriorating. We must redesign our systems to operate more in harmony with nature and ecology.”
