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Intermediate wheatgrass as a dual use crop for grain and grazing
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Advocacy is the momentum that drives our movement. We welcome all voices to join our collective rallying cry, advancing perennial agriculture and its benefits to feed people and repair the planet.
On July 10th and 11th, 2024, The Land Institute hosted its first-ever advocacy “fly-in” event in Washington, DC where stakeholders representing perennial grain agriculture and research: President Rachel Stroer of The Land Institute in Kansas, Owner David Stennes of Arcola Farms in Minnesota, and Co-Founder and Farmer Brandon Kaufman of Sustain-A-Grain in Kansas, flew to DC to engage with United States congressional and USDA staff to advance national cross-sector Kernza perennial grain research. The fly-in enabled stakeholders to inform policymakers, including several Representatives from the states of Kansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and the Senate Agriculture Commitee Staff, of the extraordinary advances in Kernza farming, research, and supply chain development.
These conversations demonstrated how agricultural policy and government support for perennial grain research benefit the nation’s farmers, consumers, and natural resources by bolstering ongoing research efforts and propelling Kernza research to meet growing demands for sustainable grain and forage.
By engaging in initial conversations around Kernza with impactful policymakers, this group of Kernza advocates paved the way for future discussions with decision-makers around the benefits of Kernza in US agriculture and the need for investments in perennial grain infrastructure to overcome obstacles that could hinder agricultural productivity.
Efforts in local, state, federal, and global policy are required to achieve sustained increases in research funding, infrastructure, and next-generation talent, large-scale adoption of perennial practices on landscapes, financial incentives for farmers, and marketplace support.
The Land Institute joined the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) to collaborate on policy impact, resource sharing, amplifying the benefits of perennial agriculture to advance sustainable agricultural practices in the US, and expanding our reach in the federal policy space.
We are also members of the US Nature for Climate (USN4C) Coalition and members of the CANVAS science policy committee, formerly known as the Tri-Societies. (American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA))
We actively pursue opportunities to provide comment on federal actions and the implementation of federal directives as well as seek out opportunities to be on science advisory committees. Although no scientists are currently on scientific advisory councils, we closely monitor these opportunities and share our expertise in perennial grain agriculture where we can. We work to interact directly with our policy makers in federal policy making and have visited Washington DC to directly advocate for perennial grain agriculture research. We continue to build our resources and materials that help policymakers help our perennial grains agriculture community.
We collaborate with the USDA and others to advocate for increased support for perennial grain research. Outreach includes engagement like the USDA Outlook Forum in Washington, DC, annual visits to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers, educating on the exciting Kernza progress nationwide, and briefing stakeholders globally at the United Nations’ COP28 on perennial rice. We also participate in listening sessions with local, state, federal, and global government agencies and work closely with researchers in government, universities, NGOs, and private institutions to expand perennial grain research.
Our policy work is rooted in research to understand how we can best actualize the perennial transition by leveraging federal and state-level policymaking and understanding what policy solutions exist beyond the realm of research. We look for impactful policy impacts that benefit perennial grain growers, consumers, producers, processors, and distributors. Support for early Kernza adopters, such as the Perennial grain crop conservation rotation (E328O) enhancement from the USDA NRCS EQIP program, offer critical support to members of the Kernza supply chain. We look to support the use of these programs and how to increase the availability of these offerings to benefit the entire Kernza network.
In the past, we have reached out to our supporters to ask for help in contacting their representatives to advocate for investments in Kernza research. If you are interested in future opportunities like this, sign up for our e-news list and keep an eye out for future opportunities.
Kernza is included in the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) E3280 Perennial Grain Enhancement for growers. Click here to learn more. The Kernza network has also received USDA support through the 5-year KernzaCAP grant.
We are members of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and the US Nature4Climate coalition to engage with policy and decisionmakers on the benefits of perennial grains for sustainable agriculture and natural climate solutions.
