The International Initiative is part of The Land Institute’s work to ignite a global movement of perennial grain researchers and advocates to realize a just and diverse perennial grain agriculture worldwide.
Want to join the network and put your perennial grain agriculture research on the map? Click the button above and fill out the short form with your information. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
If you’d like to connect with researchers on the map above, know more about the network, or have questions or comments, please contact international.initiative@landinstitute.org.
Read the International Initiative’s Network Assessment Interview Synthesis and Final Report.
*Please note that the map above only shows active, perennial research; however, the International Initiative also maintains communications with and a full database of all interested partners, so please do join even if you are not currently working on perennial grain research.
What Is the International Initiative?
The Land Institute has been deeply rooted in North America’s central Great Plains for over forty years. Over the last decade, scientific interest in developing and testing perennial grain cultivars has grown exponentially and internationally. Today, The Land Institute facilitates collaborations with over 170 researchers on six continents as part of our initiative to formalize and scale the international movement to realize perennial grain agriculture.
Mathieu Chevalier amid the roots of intermediate wheatgrass. French researchers are already studying how to grow, use, and market Kernza perennial grain. The pit shown here allowed researchers to study how intermediate wheatgrass roots change the structure of the soil and affect the flow of water and gases.
Initiative Launch and Timeline
The Land Institute began the planning phase of the initiative in the fall of 2020. During the fall, a survey of nearly 100 researchers provided preliminary direction on how the initiative can best serve the international scientific community.
The Land Institute announced Tim Crews, Chief Scientist, as Director of the International Initiative in December 2021. He is tasked with forming and facilitating a steering committee of international collaborators who will help prioritize the initiative activities over the coming year.
In December 2020, the Food Planet Prize was awarded to The Land Institute by The Curt Bergfors Foundations. This $1 million prize provides anchor funding to launch the International Initiative. Stay tuned for more information about what will be required to realize a global movement’s vision. Join us by supporting this work with a donation to The Land Institute.