Revolutionize Farming - Explore Perennial Solutions Now

Learn

New hardware for agriculture

Perennial grains are new hardware for agriculture that can transform how we farm by changing what we grow. These long-lived alternatives to major grains, including cereals, legumes, and oilseeds, will allow farmers to plant once and harvest a crop for many years without replanting. Our modern system relies on annual grain crops. These are commonly planted every year, require chemical and fossil fuel inputs, and are maintained by tillage, leaving the soil exposed to erosion and releasing greenhouse gases.

Perennials represent a fundamental shift, holding the potential for a truly regenerative future in which humanity and nature flourish together as a collaborative system. A future in which diverse, perennial crop cover our farmlands, building healthy soil, restoring waterways, and creating abundant food and economic growth for farmers and their communities.

Historical Context

1976

Origins

Dana and Wes Jackson co-founded The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas.

1979

A perennial gathering

The Land Institute hosted its first Prairie Festival, a large gathering of supporters that ultimately evolved into a regular event bringing together scientists, advocates, artists, poets, musicians, and stakeholders of all kinds to celebrate and support a perennial future.

1983

Building research capacity

The organization established its first agricultural internship program to welcome new generations of perennial grain researchers. Today, interns, research assistants, and students from around the globe join The Land Institute each summer to support critical perennial grain field work and research efforts.

1989

International collaboration

The Land Institute hosted the first international meeting to gather researchers from around the globe interested in exploring perennial grain potential. This would be the first of many international meetings, with the 12th meeting taking place in 2025 in Mexico.

1998

Foundation for transformative research

The Land Institute launched its Natural Systems Agriculture Fellowship, a program that trained many of today’s Kernza® perennial grain researchers and members of the Kernza network who have carried the crop onto landscapes and markets.

2001

Perennial grain breeding formalized

The Land Institute officially established the Kernza Domestication Program, which formalized Kernza breeding efforts and signified momentum of the organization’s connection with researchers and institutions worldwide. The Land Institute also established the perennial wheat program with the goal of developing perennial wheat that is economically viable for farmers and replaces the global food calories of annual wheat.

2003

Additional perennial grains explored

The perenial sorghum program was established by former researcher and Ecosphere Fellow Stan Cox, and the the perennial oilseeds team was formalized by current oilseeds lead scientist David Van Tassel, indicating a start of The Land Institute’s goal to develop a portfolio of perennial grain crops suited for different climates and communities.

2009

A vision for the future

Co-founder Wes Jackson and renowned environmentalist Wendell Berry co-authored “A 50-Year Farm Bill” in the New York Times. This article called upon the federal government to support and accelerate perennial grain research efforts to address issues of food security and environmental degradation.

2016

Perennial grain hits markets

The first-ever perennial grain product hit the market in the form of a beer containing Kernza perennial grain.

2018

Legumes enter perennial grain research

The perennial legume program explored alfalfa and lupin as potential new grain legumes and Kura clover as a perennial companion legume, and ultimately identified sainfoin as a prime candidate for domestication.

2021

Perennial rice breakthrough

Research partners achieved a high-yielding perennial rice variety, which was grown on 15,333 hectares by nearly 45,000 smallholder farmers in China in 2021.

2023

Perennial grains on the global climate stage

The Land Institute sent two official observers to the United Nation’s COP28, the most profilic global climate conference in the world.

2025

Global recognition

Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates called for several “moonshot” initiatives to address food security in a changing climate, naming a transition to perennial agriculture as one of their key recommendations. This same year, The Land Institute and CIMMYT co-hosted the 2025 International Meeting in Texcoco, Mexico, the largest gathering of global perennial grain researchers to date.

Vision for the future

For nearly 50 years, The Land Institute has pursued a bold vision: reconciling the human economy with Nature’s economy, starting with food. What was once a radical idea—developing deep-rooted, perennial grain crops that are high-yielding, resilient perennial grains that can restore soil, conserve water, and transform food systems, is becoming a reality. Our science has demonstrated that we can achieve high-yielding, climate-resilient perennial grain crops and diverse cropping systems to build an agriculture with environmental benefits on par with native grasslands and other natural ecosystems.

Realizing this future will require supporting and catalyzing the global perennial agriculture community and co-creating perennial crops and the communities of people that will care for them. By fulfilling our vision for the future, we can build an agricultural system that produces food while storing carbon, fostering biodiversity, and conserving resources.