The Land Institute

The Land Institute is a non-profit organization and research center housed in a modest collection of buildings on the bank of the Smoky Hill River in Salina, Kansas. Our vision, however, is sweeping: we want to change the way the world grows its food. What are we doing? We are creating a new agriculture informed by nature. It produces food while preserving biodiversity. It minimizes the inevitable damage associated with annual crops: soil loss and degradation, water fouled with toxins and drained of its oxygen, and high greenhouse gas emissions.Our scientists are developing perennial grains that will require less passes of fossil-fuel dependent farm machinery, conserve soil, better manage precipitation and nutrients, require fewer (if any) applications of fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, sequester more carbon than annual crops, and weather the drought and deluge that will become more common with climate change. Why is change necessary? Annual crops require cheap energy and lots of it. Field preparations, chemical treatments, even the manufacture of fertilizer — all are energy intensive. Skyrocketing global demand for fossil fuel is colliding with dwindling supplies, which will drive up the cost of producing food with annual crops. Perennials crops, which provide food for years without replanting, have a much smaller energy footprint.Water and wind erode exposed soil relentlessly. Perennial grains provide year-round cover, shield soil from wind, absorb rain, slow surface runoff. Their magnificent root structures manage water and nutrients through weather extremes, while hosting microorganisms critical to healthy soil. In addition, their superior ability to hold the soil allows farmers to use hilly land not before available due to the risk of erosion.How are perennial crops created? Slowly, as with any plant breeding. We start either with wild perennial plants and select those with the best crop potential, or an annual crop that is crossed with a related perennial species. Of the 13 most widely grown grain and oilseed crops, 10 can be hybridized with perennial relatives.When selecting for crop traits, we cull thousands of plants looking for desirable seed yield, seed size, seed retention, short stalks, etc. — qualities that contribute to reliable, bountiful harvests. Then plant breeders cross the most promising plants. The goal for each generation is a higher percentage of superior characteristics.In our test plots and greenhouse are promising examples of perennial wheat, wheatgrass, sorghum, sunflowers and legumes; but many more years of research and breeding are necessary before they will be ready for distribution to farmers.The Land Institute collaborates with scientists across the United States and in China, Australia, Sweden, Argentina and Canada.