Wes Jackson (born 1936) co-founded the
Land Institute
The Land Institute is an American nonprofit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture, based in Salina, Kansas. Their goal is to develop an agricultural system based on perennial crops that "has the ecolo ...
with
Dana Jackson. He is also a member of the
World Future Council
The World Future Council (WFC) is a German non-profit foundation with its headquarters in Hamburg. It works to pass on a healthy and sustainable planet with just and peaceful societies to future generations.
FuturePolicy.org
The website f ...
.
Early life and education
Jackson was born and raised on a farm near Topeka, Kansas. After earning a BA in
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
from
Kansas Wesleyan University
Kansas Wesleyan University is a private Christian university in Salina, Kansas. Founded in 1886, it is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. About 800 students attend KWU, with approximately 700 of them studying on the 28-acre campus. ...
, an MA in
botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
from the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...
, and a PhD in
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
from
North Carolina State University, Wes Jackson established and served as chair of one of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
' first
environmental studies programs at
California State University, Sacramento
California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is the eleventh oldest school in the 23-campus California ...
.
Jackson then chose to leave academia, returning to his native
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...
, where he founded a non-profit organization,
The Land Institute, in 1976. The Land Institute is working to develop perennial grains, pulses, and oilseed-bearing plants to be grown in ecologically intensified, diverse crop mixtures under its Natural Systems Agriculture program. In tandem with these sustainable agriculture efforts, the Ecosphere Studies program seeks to change the way people think about the world and their place in it, through educational and cultural projects with a perennial perspective. Jackson stepped down from the presidency of The Land Institute in 2016, but still works in the Ecosphere Studies program.
Work with The Land Institute
The Land Institute has explored alternatives in
appropriate technology
Appropriate technology is a movement (and its manifestations) encompassing technological choice and application that is small-scale, affordable by locals, decentralized, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sustainable, and loca ...
, environmental ethics, and education, but a research program in sustainable agriculture eventually became central to its work. In 1978, Jackson proposed the development of a
perennial
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...
polyculture
In agriculture, polyculture is the practice of growing more than one crop species in the same space, at the same time. In doing this, polyculture attempts to mimic the diversity of natural ecosystems. Polyculture is the opposite of monoculture, i ...
. He sought to have fields planted in polycultures, more than one variety of plant in a field, like diverse plants grow together in nature.
Jackson also wanted to use perennials, which would not need to be replanted every year - reducing the need for frequent tillage, preventing erosion, and promoting plant-soil microbe relationships to establish and persist. The Land Institute attempts to breed plants not presently used in agriculture into effective producers of perennial grains in
intercropping
Intercropping is a multiple cropping practice that involves growing two or more crops in proximity. In other words, intercropping is the cultivation of two or more crops simultaneously on the same field. The most common goal of intercropping is ...
conditions. Jackson argues that this version of agriculture used "nature as model," and to pursue that end, ''The Land Institute'' has studied
prairie
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...
.
Current and future work
Now in its fourth decade, The Land Institute is beginning to demonstrate progress in developing the perennial crops called for in the Natural Systems Agriculture model. Programs in
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
,
sorghum, and
sunflower are generating crop lines displaying both perenniality and agriculturally-significant seed yield.
Research on integrating these new plants into polycultures also continues. The Land Institute is not itself developing machinery suitable for one-pass harvesting of grain polycultures. It instead takes the position that integration of existing materials separation technology into harvesters is a straightforward task, and will be accomplished by public and private agricultural engineers when the demand arrives.
Author
Wes Jackson is the author of several books and is recognized as a leader in the international
sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem ser ...
movement. In 1971, Wes Jackson's first efforts to address growing environmental concerns, react to social concerns growing from the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
and
opposition to the Vietnam War
Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War (before) or anti-Vietnam War movement (present) began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social mov ...
, and answer student requests for more relevant materials, resulted in the environmental reader, "Man and the Environment".
Jayne T. MacLean, Jane Potter Gates, Wes Jackson and National Agricultural Library (U.S.) (1990). "Oral history interview by Jane Gates with Wes Jackson". Beltsville, Maryland: National Agricultural Library
The United States National Agricultural Library (NAL) is one of the world's largest agricultural research libraries, and serves as a national library of the United States and as the library of the United States Department of Agriculture. Located ...
. Retrieved December 29, 2008.[Jackson, Wes (1971). "Man and the Environment." Dubuque, Iowa: William C. Brown Company. Preface, xvii.] After leaving academia and establishing the
Land Institute
The Land Institute is an American nonprofit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture, based in Salina, Kansas. Their goal is to develop an agricultural system based on perennial crops that "has the ecolo ...
, Jackson published ''New Roots for Agriculture,'' partially in reaction to a report from the U.S.
Government Accountability Office on soil
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...
.
U.S. Government Accountability Office (1977). "Protect Tomorrow's Food Supply, Soil Conservation Needs Priority Attention". CED-77-30. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
This book expanded on ideas presented in a 1978 article, "Towards a Sustainable Agriculture,"
Jackson, Wes (2002). "Systems Agriculture: A radical alternative". Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 88: 111-117. Retrieved December 29, 2008. about looking to natural
ecosystems
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...
, such as the
prairie
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
, to help solve the problem of soil erosion. He collaborated with author
Wendell Berry
Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ...
on "Meeting the Expectations of the Land," in response to a Council on Agricultural Science and Technology report on
agrochemicals
An agrochemical or agrichemical, a contraction of ''agricultural chemical'', is a chemical product used in industrial agriculture. Agrichemical refers to biocides (pesticides including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and nematicides) and sy ...
.
[Jackson, Wes, Wendell Berry, and Bruce Colman, Eds. (1984). "Meeting the Expectations of the Land: Essays in Sustainable Agriculture and Stewardship." San Francisco, CA: North Point Press.]
Jackson's ''Becoming Native to This Place,'' published in 1994, challenges readers to develop a relationship with their
ecosystems
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...
and further develops the idea of Natural Systems Agriculture. He was a 1990 Pew Conservation Scholar and in 1992 became a
MacArthur Fellow
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...
.
In 2000, he received the
Right Livelihood Award "for his single-minded commitment to developing an agriculture that is both highly productive and truly ecologically sustainable." His work is often referred to by author
Wendell Berry
Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ...
, with whom Jackson has shared a longtime friendship and correspondence.
Works
Selected Bibliography
Primary Author:
* Man and the Environment (1971)
* New Roots for Agriculture (1980)
* Altars of Unhewn Stone: Science and the Earth (1987)
* Becoming Native to This Place (1994)
* Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson (2011)
* Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture (2011)
Contributor:
* Meeting the Expectations of the Land: Essays in Sustainable Agriculture and Stewardship (1984), Editor
* Soil and Survival: Land Stewardship and the Future of American Agriculture (1986), Introduction by
* From the Land: Articles Compiled from the Land 1941-1954 (1988), Introduction by
* Farming in Nature's Image: An Ecological Approach to Agriculture (1991), Foreword by
* Life on the Dry Line: Working the Land, 1902-1944 (1992), Foreword by
* From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World (1993), Foreword by
* The Ecology of Hope: Communities Collaborate for Sustainability (1996), Foreword by
* Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle (1999), Foreword by
* Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town (1999), Foreword by
* Wendell Berry: Life and Work (2007), Essay
* The Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability, and the Limits of Knowledge (2008), Editor
* American Georgics: Writings on Farming, Culture and the Land (2011), Foreword by
Quotes
*"If we don't get sustainability in agriculture first, sustainability will not happen."
*"By beginning to make agriculture sustainable we will have taken the first step forward for humanity to begin to measure progress by its independence from the extractive economy."
*"Ecosystem agriculturalists will take advantage of huge chunks of what works. They will be taking advantage of the natural integrities of ecosystems worked out over the millennia."
*"If your life's work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you're not thinking big enough."
See also
*
Agrarianism
*
Local food
Local food is food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system.
Local food (or "locavore") movements aim to con ...
*
No-till farming
No-till farming (also known as zero tillage or direct drilling) is an agricultural technique for growing crops or pasture without disturbing the soil through tillage. No-till farming decreases the amount of soil erosion tillage causes in certai ...
*
Polyculture
In agriculture, polyculture is the practice of growing more than one crop species in the same space, at the same time. In doing this, polyculture attempts to mimic the diversity of natural ecosystems. Polyculture is the opposite of monoculture, i ...
*
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture is farming in sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an understanding of ecosystem ser ...
*
Yoshikazu Kawaguchi
was the leading Japanese practitioner of the "natural farming" method popularized by Masanobu Fukuoka and farmed by this method in Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture for 30 years.''The Other Japan: Voices Beyond the Mainstream'', Suzuki, David T., ...
References
External links
The Land Institute35 Who Made a Difference: Wes Jackson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Wes
American agricultural writers
American male non-fiction writers
American environmentalists
21st-century American botanists
American geneticists
American non-fiction environmental writers
Sustainability advocates
MacArthur Fellows
Kansas Wesleyan University alumni
University of Kansas alumni
North Carolina State University alumni
People from Salina, Kansas
Living people
Writers from Topeka, Kansas
1936 births