The Land Institute is a non-profit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture based in Kansas, United States
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". A non-profit organization ( abbreviated "NPO" also "not-for-profit" is a legally constituted Organization whose objective is to support or engage Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals environmental Stewardship, Farm Profitability and prosperous Farming communities Kansas ( is a Midwestern state in the central region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the American " A perennial plant or perennial ( Latin per, "through" annus, "year" is a Plant that lives for more than Ecological Stability can take on any connotation in a continuum ranging from resilience (returning quickly to a previous state to constancy (lack of change to persistence (simply Botanically an annual plant is a Plant that usually germinates, Flowers and dies in one Year.
The institute, based in Salina, Kansas, was founded in 1976 by plant geneticist and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient Wes Jackson and Dana Jackson (who has long worked with the Land Stewardship Project in Minnesota). Salina (pronounced /səˈlaɪnə/) is a city in and the County seat of Saline County, Kansas, United States. Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A geneticist is a scientist who studies Genetics, the science of Heredity and variation of Organisms A geneticist can be employed as a researcher The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship (sometimes Nicknamed the "genius grant") is an award given by the John D Wes Jackson is the founder and current president of The Land Institute. Minnesota ( Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers Wes Jackson has been the guiding figure at The Land Institute, but he has also been fortunate to have the assistance of leading figures in their fields including photographer Terry Evans, and historians Brian Donahue, Donald Worster, and Angus Wright. Donald Worster is a Historian at the University of Kansas Department of History Angus Wright is professor Emeritus of environmental studies California State University Sacramento, and author of The Death of Ramon Gonzalez The Modern Agricultural
Perennial polyculture systems may have a variety of benefits over conventional annual monocultures such as increased biodiversity, reduced soil erosion, and reduced inputs on fossil fuels, fertilizers, and pesticides [1]. Polyculture is agriculture using multiple crops in the same space in imitation of the diversity of natural ecosystems and avoiding large stands of single crops or Monoculture Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area Biodiversity is the variation of Life forms within a given Ecosystem, Biome or for the entire Earth. Erosion is the carrying away or displacement of solids ( Sediment, Soil, rock and other particles usually by the agents of currents such as wind Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fossil source Fuels that is Hydrocarbons found within the top layer of the Earth’s crust. Fertilizers ( also spelt fertiliser are chemical compounds given to Plants to promote growth they are usually applied either through the soil for uptake by plant A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used to kill a pest.
Using gains made in scientific knowledge and ability over the past few decades, Land Institute scientists are breeding the annual crop plants wheat, sorghum and sunflower with wild, perennial relatives, thus creating perennial wheat, perennial sorghum and perennial sunflower. Wheat ( Triticum spp is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Levant area of the Middle East. Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, some of which are raised for grain and many of which are used as Fodder plants either cultivated or as part The sunflower ( Helianthus annuus) is an Annual plant in the family Asteraceae and native to the Americas, with a large flowering sunflower is a new crop being developed by crossing wild perennial and domestic annual sunflower species They also are working to domesticate productive perennials, including the high-protein Illinois bundleflower. Domestication (from Latin domesticus) refers to the process whereby a Population of Animals Desmanthus is a genus of about 24 species of herbs and shrubs and is sometimes described as being suffruiticose Since each recombination of traits and selection takes a plant generation, to achieve productive and genetically stable perennial crop plants for use by farmers is expected to take several decades.
In addition to promoting a "natural systems agriculture," The Land Institute is an advocate for rural community. Rural community development encompasses a range of approaches and activities that aim to improve the welfare and livelihoods of people living in rural areas. It sees the former helping the latter, with less reliance on industrial supplies and more value on farmers knowing fields' individual characteristics.
The work of The Land Institute was featured in Michael Pollan's New York Times best-seller The Omnivore's Dilemma. Michael Pollan (born February 6, 1955) is an American author columnist activist and professor of Journalism and director of the Knight Program in The Omnivore's Dilemma A Natural History of Four Meals is a 2006 non-fiction book by Michael Pollan in which the author explores the question "What should we 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 (Inside the revolutionary new science that is rediscovering life's best ideas - and changing the world). Modus operandi (often used in the abbreviated forms MO or simply Method) is a Latin phrase approximately translated as " mode of operation Janine M Benyus (born 1958 in New Jersey is an American Natural sciences writer innovation consultant and author Biomimicry (from Bios, meaning life and mimesis, meaning to imitate is a relatively new science that studies Nature, its models systems processes and (1997). (ISBN 0-06-053322-6).
References
See also
- Deconstructing Dinner
- The Earth Institute
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (book)
External links
- [2] Smithsonian magazine profile of Jackson
- [3] 1986 interview with In Context
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