by J. Michael Wheeler
Ten thousand years ago we made a wrong turn. Oops. That’s what Stan Cox, a senior scientist at The Land Institute says. The wrong turn was the cultivation of annual crops such as wheat. Annuals thrive in environments with extreme variations in climate, known as the Mediterranean Climate: a short, temperate rainy season and then nine months of dry heat.
But what if farmers didn’t need to plant the same crop each year? The annual wheat we harvest today is a subsection of the wheat family that broke away, millions of years ago, from the perennial branch of the plant.
We’ve built most of our agricultural and dietary system on the cultivation of annual crops. Yearly plantings require farmers to plow fields, spend money on planting seed, and artificially enhance soil with nitrogen fertilizer. This cycle of growing crops, harvesting, and then replanting, has very significant ecological consequences. Plowing and planting increases soil erosion and the water run-off from heavily fertilized soil sparks explosions of algae growth in rivers, lakes, and oceans. Bacteria that help decompose those algae blooms suck all of the oxygen out of the water making it incapable for most other living creatures.
What to do? Well, there is a search for “perennial wheat,” that is, wheat that isn’t seasonal. Perennial crops wouldn’t suffer the problems caused by soil erosion. Their root systems would be similar to those of native prairie grasses. The Land Institute web site tells us:
The world's farms, heavily reliant on non-renewable resources, are turning out more food than ever in history. At the same time, agriculture unintentionally but tragically worsens the global ecological crisis.
Land Institute plant breeders and agroecologists work to reconcile humanity's food needs with resource conservation by developing perennial versions of our annual grain crops. While producing familiar grains—wheat, sorghum, sunflower and others—perennial cropping systems will function more like the natural ecosystems agriculture has replaced.
It is part of a growing interest called “natural systems agriculture” that includes diverse plantings, perennial crops, and soil conservation. While yields on perennial crops may be lower, Stephan Jones, a geneticist at Washington State University, is quoted in a Gourmet article (“Against the Grain”, July 2007), “For the past hundred years, yield has been everything.” Focusing exclusively on yield is shortsighted. Jones adds, “What’s it worth to save your soil?”
Resources and links:
The Land Institute: Perennial Grain Cropping Research
Washington State University Winter Wheat Program
Click here to subscribe to Gourmet.