Can Bioengineered Plants Solve Our Carbon Problem?
Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology is being hailed as an indispensable part of the energy transition. Net-zero emissions “will be virtually impossible without CCUS,” says the International Energy Agency (IEA), while…
The Roots of Regenerative Agriculture
Shiloh Maples, an educator and community organizer of Ojibwe and Oglala descent, works with Anishinaabe peoples in Detroit to strengthen urban food sovereignty. Maples’ growers asked for access to culturally…
Agriculture Must Change, With Different Skills and a New Attitude Required
An opportunity came along last summer to do some good for the Earth and at the same time engage in a form of distraction late in my working life. Owners…
Researchers Examine Role of Perennial Crops, Other Practices on Climate Resilience
A rash of natural disasters, including wildfires, hurricanes and a historically early ice storm, backlit by a contentious election season, are keeping climate change in the headlines, even as agricultural…
Can the Climate-Friendly Grain Kernza Finally Hit the Big Time?
At Bang Brewing in St. Paul, Minnesota, co-owner Sandy Boss Febbo keeps an 18-foot-long poster on the wall with photos of two grasses and their excavated roots. The first is a wheat…
Prairie Research Could Help Farming Become More Resilient, Sustainable
On a still November day, Patrick O’Neal, the burn coordinator at Kansas State University’s Konza Prairie Biological Station near Manhattan, Kansas, convenes a meeting about a planned fire. “The goal…
Industry Helps Regenerative Ag Gain Momentum
KANSAS CITY — Whole Foods Market identified regenerative agriculture as one of nine leading food and beverage trends in 2020. The supermarket, a division of Amazon.com, Inc., predicted consumers would…
Our Turn At This Earth: Wes Jackson and the Land Institute
Often at meetings concerning the future of the Ogallala Aquifer, I have questioned the wisdom of using precious groundwater to grow corn. Farmers who make their livings growing that crop…
Turning research toward sustainable practices
Farmers and ranchers are constantly changing their practices to succeed. The challenge of a changing climate and the pressures of an ag economy push agriculture to conserve natural resources to…
Trees, big fans, and deep-rooted plants: How to suck 2 gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere
To have a chance of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, society needs to reach net-zero emissions by 2050—meaning that if we can’t transition to an emissions-free economy by…
Global Agriculture Has a Planting Problem
Climate-friendly crops are getting more attention from farmers and food companies as pressure mounts to find sustainable forms of agriculture. Enter Kernza, a new grain that’s already got powerful backers like General…
Fred Iutzi is Working to Develop Kernza, a Sustainable Perennial Grain That Could Feed a Growing World Population
“The problem that agriculture has faced for 10,000 years is it started with the wrong hardware,” Fred Iutzi, president of The Land Institute, a research organization in Salina, Kan., told…