Could Kernza become a perennial alternative?
Every year since the 1870s, when turkey red wheat was brought to the Kansas plains, farmers have planted a wheat crop, harvested it, then planted it again in the fall….
Haven’t Heard of Kernza?
As a teenager growing up on a corn and soybean farm on the outskirts of Albert Lea, Minnesota, Lee DeHaan (M.S. ’00, Ph.D. ‘01) remembers having plenty of opportunities to…
Gaining Momentum
Part of a big idea hatched decades ago at The Land Institute continues a slow-but-significant evolution. Leaders are far from shouting their discoveries from the hilltops of eastern Saline County,…
Behold Kernza: Could this wheat save the planet?
“The problem that agriculture has faced for 10,000 years is it started with the wrong hardware,” said Fred Iutzi, president of The Land Institute, a research organization in Salina, Kan….
Fine-tuning a new crop that saves soil, produces grain and forage for cows
On a splendid May day, Valentin Picasso is visiting tests of a crop called kernza at the Arlington Agricultural Experimental Station north of Madison. As a perennial, kernza must survive…
Farmers get guidance on growing new perennial grains
While most industrial grain crops are annuals that must be replanted every year, a new perennial grain called Kernza® has hit the markets with growing interest from restaurants, bakeries and…
Kernza and the promise of perennial grain
ANAHEIM, CALIF. — At The Perennial restaurant in San Francisco, customers may order a crisp waffle, fresh-baked bread or a sourdough crumble made with Kernza, a perennial grain with deep…
Five Innovative Foods We’ll Be Seeing More of in the Future
On a shiny list of future foods, a humble grain might not stick out. But don’t let intermediate wheatgrass, a grain long found on America’s Great Plains, fool you. Originally…
Growing Against the Grain
The Land Institute pioneers a new paradigm that challenges our current destructive agriculture model: switching annual grain cropping to ecologically intensified perennial polycultures that mimic natural systems. By working with nature,…
Askov Finlayson Giving 110% to Fight Climate Change
To jumpstart their giving while the first measurement is calculated, Askov is pledging to donate $1 million in the next five years to the most innovative and effective efforts to…
New Healthy Soil Guide Gives Cooks a Better Recipe for Climate Change
I’d never really thought too much about the difference between annual and perennial [plants] until we compared them in terms of soil. Whereas annual crops get tilled and replanted every…
Let’s use the right-of-way in a smarter way
While the fact that a honest-to-goodness wheatgrass farm has been established along the shoulder of I-85 is notable within itself, the type of grain being grown alongside The Ray is…