- Land Institute
The Land Institute is a
non-profit research, education, and policy organization dedicated tosustainable agriculture based inKansas, United States Their goal is to develop an
agricultural system based on perennial crops that "has theecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield comparable to that from annual crops". [ [http://www.landinstitute.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2000/08/10/37a747b43 The Land Institute] - Official website.]The institute, based in
Salina, Kansas , was founded in1976 by plantgeneticist and MacArthur "genius grant" recipientWes Jackson and Dana Jackson (who has long worked with the Land Stewardship Project inMinnesota ). Wes Jackson has been the guiding figure at The Land Institute, but he has also been fortunate to have the assistance of leading figures in their fields including photographer Terry Evans, and historians Brian Donahue,Donald Worster , andAngus Wright .Perennial
polyculture systems may have a variety of benefits over conventional annualmonoculture s such as increasedbiodiversity , reducedsoil erosion , and reduced inputs onfossil fuels ,fertilizers , andpesticides [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/274/5292/1469] .Using gains made in scientific knowledge and ability over the past few decades, Land Institute scientists are breeding the annual crop plants
wheat ,sorghum andsunflower with wild, perennial relatives, thus creatingperennial wheat ,perennial sorghum andperennial sunflower . They also are working todomesticate productive perennials, including the high-protein Illinois bundleflower. Since each recombination of traits and selection takes a plant generation, to achieve productive and genetically stable perennial crop plants for use by farmers is expected to take several decades.In addition to promoting a "natural systems agriculture," The Land Institute is an advocate for rural community. It sees the former helping the latter, with less reliance on industrial supplies and more value on farmers knowing fields' individual characteristics.
The work of The Land Institute was featured in
Michael Pollan 'sNew York Times best-seller "The Omnivore's Dilemma ".The generalmodus operandi of developing a sustainable, high yield, low labor, agricultural model based on the culturation of crop polycultures, developed by The Land Institute forms the substance of the chapter: How Will We Feed Ourselves? inJanine Benyus 's book,Biomimicry - Innovation Inspired by Nature (Inside the revolutionary new science that is rediscovering life's best ideas - and changing the world). (1997). (ISBN 0-06-053322-6).References
ee also
*
Deconstructing Dinner
*The Earth Institute
*"" (book)
*Sustainability
*Biodiversity
*Global warming
*Ecology
*Earth Science
*Natural environment
*Recycling External links
* [http://www.landinstitute.org/ The Land Institute website]
* [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/10013121.html] Smithsonian magazine profile of Jackson
* [http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC14/WJackson.htm] 1986 interview with In Context
* [http://www.kshs.org/research/collections/documents/businessrecords/business_records_findingaids/landinstitute/landinstitutenew.htm Kansas State Historical Society page on Land Institute and its archives]
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