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Intermediate wheatgrass as a dual use crop for grain and grazing
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Just four annual crops—corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans—account for 75% of the calories consumed by people. We are missing out on a tremendous bounty of perennial foods—foods that can not only enrich our diets but help heal the land and combat climate change. By investing energy in robust root systems rather than just annual growth, perennial food plants endure year after year, pointing the way to a more resilient future.
In Living Roots, a passionate group of experts from wide-ranging backgrounds and lived experience come together to explore the promise of perennial foods. This book contains perspectives and insights from Indigenous scientists and community leaders who are working to restore buffalo prairies and traditions of berry gathering; urban visionaries planting food forests; farmers planting fruit and nut trees between their crops and hedgerows at the edges of their fields; ranchers stewarding healthier grasslands by grazing livestock in patterns that mimic the behavior of native herbivores; and scientists and farmers who are developing perennial grains, from sorghum to silphium.
Introduction | Liz Carlisle and Aubrey Streit Krug – 1
Forest | Liz Carlisle and Aubrey Streit Krug – 11
Throw It Upwards | Leah Penniman – 17
Tree-Range Chicken | Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin – 25
The Cactus Forest | Gary Paul Nabhan – 31
A Food Forest for Southeast Atlanta | Kelsi E. Bowens with Rosemary W. Griffin – 39
Neighbors | Megan Kaminski – 45
From the Fringe | Keefe Keeley – 47
In the Presence of an Olive Tree | Omar Tesdell – 53
Makwa-Miskomin: Bear’s Red Berry | Wendy Makoons Geniusz – 57
The Odyssey of Coffee | Ivette Perfecto – 63
Fruit Finding | Eliza Greenman with Bill Davison – 71
Elderberry Season | Jesse Smith – 79
Hazel-Bush and Willow | Fred Iutzi – 85
Grassland | Liz Carlisle and Aubrey Streit Krug – 93
Landscapes of Abundance | Rosalyn LaPier – 97
Prairie Sonnet | Gwen Nell Westerman – 105
They Could Hear the Buffalo | Elsie M. DuBray – 107
Brilliant Flames | Mariah Gladstone – 113
Regeneration on the Range | Paige Stanley – 119
One Prairie Strip at a Time | Lisa Schulte Moore – 125
The Perennial Imagination | Jesse Nathan – 133
From Corn Belt to Pasture | Laura Paine – 135
Root Foods | Kelly Kindscher – 143
The Beauty of Polycultures | Valentín Picasso – 150
Grain | Liz Carlisle and Aubrey Streit Krug – 157
Australian Native Grains Awakening | Jacob Birch – 161
Where the Story Starts | Muhammet Şakiroğlu – 169
Toward Perennial Sorghum | Pheonah Nabukalu – 175
Joyful, Needed Work | Lee DeHaan – 181
I See More Life than Ever Before | Wendy Johnson – 187
Going to Market | Colin Cureton – 193
Field Notes from a Perennial Kitchen | Beth Dooley – 201
Hand Threshing | Aubrey Streit Krug – 205
Generation by Generation | David Van Tassel – 207
After the Flood | Piyush Labhsetwar – 213
Shallow Roots Run Deep | Tim Crews – 217
Rooting for Ourselves | Laura van der Pol – 225
Acknowledgments – 231
Notes – 235
Contributors – 257
Index – 269
Liz Carlisle is an Associate Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at UC Santa Barbara, and the author of Lentil Underground, Grain by Grain, and Healing Grounds.
Aubrey Streit Krug is the Director of the Perennial Cultures Lab at The Land Institute, where she investigates relationships among humans, plants, and places.
