Students and researchers at The Land Institute work on long time horizons. They will not see in their lifetime the completion of their visionary task. Having rejected the use of biotechnology, they use conventional genetic engineering (plant selection and breeding) techniques to develop high seed yield characteristics in perennial plants. They also study the plant mixtures in surviving prairie remnants to speculate on how plant mixtures may be devised for a new agriculture.
Other activities at The Land Institute
The Prairie Festival is an annual gathering of people at The Land Institute. It is both a conference and a celebration, with formal presentations in the big barn and scattered workshops through the buildings and prairie paddocks. The festival I attended, in the company of about 800 others was a smorgasboard of innovative ideas on sustainable and organic agriculture, alternative lifestyles, eco-philosophy and joyful sharing of food and culture. Daytime was a talkfest from morning till night and evenings consisted of bonfires throughout the temporary tent city, around which collected spontaneous groups of bluegrass and folk musicians. The interns who provide the workforce at "The Land" conducted tours of the test plots where promising plants from which selections may be made for the new perennial agriculture grew. Resident researcher Jon Piper took us for a walk through the small area of unploughed native prairie which is preserved at The Land.
Another project is "The Sunshine Farm". This is an advenurous attempt to run a small farm, adjacent to The Land, totally on sunlight, and to keep an energy budget for the farm. They can use only renewable energy, including solar conversion electricity, wind and plant alcohol (for the tractor). Ploughing with horse drawn implements is permitted, but the horses must be fed entirely from the production of the farm. It is a10 year project to assess the level of production possible and effort required for a truely sustainable form.of agriculture.
Another project of Wes Jacksons' is Matfield Green. Matfield was a town in decline. Lack of work and the attraction of the city meant that the population was seriously declining, the services closing down and the ageing population grew despondant about the future of the town. Wes has invested a significant amount of his own funds into buying up the derelict buildings. He has convinced many of his friends to do the same. They are attempting to redevelop the township on a sustainable basis and to discover what is necessary to reinvigorate a community and keep wealth in the local area. Eventually, Wes would like to even operate his own currency, exchanging greenback dollars for "Matfield Greens" when visitors arrive, and vice versa as they depart. Several craftspeople have taken an interest in the project and redevelopment is providing work opportunities. Like the Sunshine Farm, they will try to keep the total energy budget for the project. Wes Jackson asks, "what's involved in setting up books for ecological community and county? Is it conceivable that the principals of natural eco systems that inform us on agriculture. might also be applicable to human community". He continues "rather than having sustainable agriculture here and extracting way of life over there, should we not move beyond idea that nature is a quarry to be mined".
Keeping the books has some interesting implications. For instance the local coffee shop come meeting house, the first of the buildings to be reopened as a comercial venture, has a menu complete with the origin and cost of the offerings. The blackboard on the wall lists by name the local grower of the strawberries, the name of the woman who milks the cow from which the milk has come and the fact that the sugar and coffee has come from Guatemala (and the cost).
