John Head, friend of The Land Institute and Robert W. Wagstaff Distinguished Professor of Law at Kansas University, has written“International Law and Agroecological Husbandry: Building Legal Foundations for a New Agriculture.” The book first outlines the “extractive agriculture” system the modern world has used for the last few centuries and its unsustainability. Head then explores the prospects for transitioning to a system that could produce grains perennially and achieve adequate yields to feed the world while reducing problems such as climate change and soil degradation.
Head grew up on a farm in northeast Missouri, has practiced international and comparative law, and emphasizes his support for research being done at The Land Institute. “What they’ve achieved makes it pretty clear that it is possible to move from annual crops in a monoculture to perennial crops in a polyculture and produce adequate yields,” Head said of research led by The Land Institute.