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Intermediate wheatgrass as a dual use crop for grain and grazing
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Partners and peers serve a critical role at The Land Institute, strengthening research, advancing innovation, and exchanging knowledge and resources to realize our shared mission.
From our headquarters in North America’s central Great Plains to research initiatives on six continents, The Land Institute is leading the movement to deliver on the full promise of perennial agriculture. Collaboration is the key to our regenerative future and everyone has a role to play—from plant breeders who develop crops, to social scientists who make them relevant to local communities.
One of the most important reports in modern agriculture. I believe this will catalyze a generation of new discoveries by scientists who have not yet been involved in pursuing perennial traits in staple grain crops. This research marks a distinct new line of possibilities for global food production from the nearly 10,000-year single-track reliance on annual grain crops.
The Land Institute is proud to join more than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates in signing the Laureate Letter—an unprecedented global call to action, urging investment in “moonshot” agricultural solutions to ensure food security in a changing climate. Of the seven high-impact strategies outlined in the letter, two are at the core of The Land Institute’s mission: the transformation of annual to perennial crops and the diversification of cropping systems to build climate resilience.
“The pursuit of perennial grains doesn’t end with intermediate wheatgrass. Groups like The Land Institute have been extremely important to expanding this work. There are perennial varieties of wheat, rice, legumes, and oil crops that are being tested, and many of these crops require continued breeding to truly be ready for prime time. Undoubtedly, some of them will find their way into America’s production systems and markets, but they will require communities of innovators to reach their potential.” — Quote from USDA Agricultural Research Service article
The Land Institute and partners are developing diverse perennial grain crops and agricultural and cultural systems to increase nutrient retention, reduce fossil fuel dependence in agriculture, enhance farmer income, and address global food security and climate change. Learn about the global network’s advancement of key research areas.
The Land Institute’s scientists have a remarkable history of providing foundational knowledge in perennial grain development in collaboration with international colleagues on six continents. With this work, The Land Institute brings together a global network to build a movement that scales the research needed to develop perennial grain crops ecologically adapted, culturally valued, and economically viable at local and regional scales.
Together with a network of collaborators, we work to:
Our global strategy is to create regional hubs centered on locally led perennial grain research and connective infrastructure to support and sustain them. Participants share innovations, knowledge, and resources around the world.
Global collaboration is grounded in localized learning and shared leadership. Places have long histories and ongoing stories of human relationships with diverse perennial plants, crops, and ecosystems. Regional hubs may respectfully revitalize local knowledge and communities through integrative, participatory research.
Low-input perennial grain agriculture could help communities learn to persist through crisis and remake their local and regional food systems to achieve perennial food security within ecological limits.
The Land Institute’s will collaboratively organize a global research agenda and research partner to scale the global movement to transform agriculture to realize perennial systems. We will support the continued formation and facilitation of interdisciplinary networks and clusters of researchers in particular geographic areas or working on a single species or challenges, like soil ecology or intercropping, together across continents.
The success of the global effort will be made possible by the active participation of partners to identify priorities and lead specific efforts or projects.
