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In March 2025, 95 researchers, nonprofit leaders, and institutional partners from 25 countries gathered at the birthplace of the Green Revolution—CIMMYT’s campus in Texcoco, Mexico—for the largest convening of perennial grain agriculture development to date. Co-hosted by The Land Institute and CIMMYT, the meeting aimed to accelerate perennial grain research, deepen collaboration, and build global infrastructure for resilient food systems.

Timely research from The Land Institute and collaborators at Colorado State University, The Nature Conservancy, American Rivers, and Trout Unlimited is exploring the drought tolerance and water usage of three different perennial grains: sainfoin, silflower, and Kernza®. The research findings could suggest a perennial solution to addressing drought resilience in farming and ranching in water-insecure areas along the Colorado River in the arid western US.

The Land Institute’s Soil Ecology Program team, in collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), is collecting soil data from Kansas farms to understand how carbon storage in soils under Kernza compares to soils under adjacent annual grains over time. This first-ever on-farm look at Kernza carbon storage potential will be instrumental in answering questions about how Kernza accumulates carbon belowground at depth in the Central Great Plains Region of the United States and could also guide supply chain actors and food and beverage makers in making informed claims about Kernza and the soil and carbon impacts of their ingredients.