Food and Soil Resources 14
C A S E S T U D Y
Growing Perennial Crops
on the Kansas Prairie
by Copying Nature
Think about farms in Kansas and you probably picture
seemingly endless fields of wheat or corn plowed
up and planted each year. By 2040, the picture might
change, thanks to pioneering research at the nonprofit
Land Institute near Salina, Kansas.
The institute, headed by plant geneticist Wes
Jackson, is experimenting with an ecological approach
to agriculture on the midwestern prairie. It relies on
planting a mixture of different crops in the same area,
a technique called polyculture. This involves planting a
mix of perennial grasses (Figure 14-1, right), legumes
(a source of nitrogen fertilizer, Figure 14-1, left), sunflowers,
grain crops, and plants that provide natural
insecticides in the same field.
The goal is to raise food by mimicking many of
the natural conditions of the prairie without losing
fertile grassland soil. Institute researchers believe that
perennial polyculture can be blended with modern monoculture
to help reduce the latter's harmful environmental
effects.
Because these plants are perennials, there is no
need to plow up and prepare the soil each year to replant
them. This takes much less labor than conventional
monoculture or diversified organic farms that
grow annual crops. It also reduces soil erosion because
the unplowed soil is not exposed to wind and
rain. And it reduces the need for irrigation because
the deep roots of such perennials retain more water
than annuals. There is also less pollution from chemical
fertilizers and pesticides. This sounds like a winwin
solution.
Thirty-six years of research by the institute have
shown t ...