The Land Institute’s co-founder Wes Jackson received the 2025 Linda Hessman Lifetime Achievement Award at the Kansas Farmers Union’s (KFU) 118th anniversary convention for his extensive work in service to rural Kansas.

Jackson is a renowned author, plant geneticist, and emeritus professor of Biology who helped spark a movement in Kansas and globally to develop perennial grain crops, cropping systems, and markets to build new communities centered around perennial agriculture. Experts widely recognize him as one of the foremost figures in the international sustainable agriculture movement. He authored and co-authored numerous books, including the seminal New Roots for Agriculture, which conceptualized the idea of The Land Institute’s work on natural systems agriculture modeled on and inspired by the Kansas prairie. This perennial vision remains influential to The Land Institute’s work in Salina, Kansas, along the banks of the Smoky Hill River to this day.

It was a pleasure and honor to have the opportunity to present the legendary Wes Jackson with our beloved Linda Hessman Lifetime Achievement Award.” — KFU President Donn Teske