Soil is more important than oil': inside the perennial grain revolution

"On the concrete floor of a greenhouse in rural Kansas stands a neat grid of 100 plastic plant pots, each holding a straggly crown of strappy, grass-like leaves. These plants are perennials they keep growing, year after year. That single characteristic separates them from soya beans, wheat, maize, rice and every other major grain crop, all of which are annuals: plants that live and die within a single growing season. These plants are the winners, the ones that get to pass their genes on [to future generations], says Lee DeHaan of the Land Institute, an agricultural non-profit based in Salina, Kansas. If DeHaan's breeding programme maintains its current progress, the descendant of these young perennial crop plants could one day usher in a wholesale revolution in agriculture. The plants are intermediate wheatgrass. Since 2010, DeHaan has been transforming this small-seeded, wild species into a high-yielding, domesticated grain crop called Kernza. He believes it will eventually be a viable and far more sustainable alternative to annual wheat, the world's most widely grown crop and the source of one in five of all calories consumed by humanity."

"Annual plants thrive in bare ground. Growing them requires fields to be prepared, usually by ploughing or intensive herbicide treatment, and new seeds planted each year. For this reason, Tim Crews, chief scientist at the Land Institute, describes existing agricultural systems as the greatest disturbance on the planet. There's nothing like it, he says. The damage inflicted by today's food system is clear: one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions; ocean dead zones covering thousands of square miles; and 25bn-40bn tonnes of fertile topsoil lost each year. Replacing annual plants with perennial varieties would massively reduce agriculture's environmental impact. Soil erosion would drop; perenni"

Intermediate wheatgrass is being bred into a domesticated perennial grain called Kernza at the Land Institute. Breeding began in 2010 and selects elite plants from thousands of seedlings to create higher-yielding, domesticated lines. Perennial crops maintain living roots year-round, unlike annual cereals that require yearly ploughing or herbicide treatment and reseeding. Annual-based agriculture drives substantial environmental damage: roughly one-third of global greenhouse-gas emissions, large ocean dead zones, and 25–40 billion tonnes of fertile topsoil lost annually. Replacing annuals with perennials could markedly reduce erosion, lower disturbance, sequester carbon, and improve long-term sustainability, while requiring continued breeding and market development.

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