SALINA, Kan. (AP) - Kernza soon could be a household name, not just in Kansas but around the world, officials at Salina’s The Land Institute predict.
A cousin to wheat, Kernza is a perennial grain developed by The Land Institute to help address problems with soil erosion, greenhouse gas pollution, groundwater depletion, fertilizer runoff and other negative effects of industrialized annual crops. It also uses water more efficiently.
“Our goal isn’t that this is a specialty crop. Our goal is that this is a quantity crop that would be growing nationally,” said Scott Allegrucci, senior development and communications officer with The Land Institute.
Giving research of the grain a big boost are a partnership with Cascadian Farm, a division of General Mills, and a $500,000 charitable contribution to The Land Institute and the Forever Green Initiative at the University of Minnesota.
The hope is that in just a few years, Kernza will be readily available to shoppers for baking, side dishes, desserts and beverages. Already the grain is being brewed into a beer marketed as Long Root Ale.
The Salina Journal (https://bit.ly/2mIDaRy ) reports that Cascadian Farm, a leading brand of organic foods, has agreed to purchase an initial amount of the grain for use in organic products, providing a buyer at a volume that allows growers to plant on commercial-scale fields.
Allegrucci said the crop is being harvested in Africa, Asia, South America, Australia, Canada and throughout North America, including at The Land Institute in Salina.
“We have partnerships in 20 countries,” Allegrucci said. “We have an international resource scope. There is a big program forming to grow Kernza in Sweden.”
The draw is the crop’s environmental benefits.
“The length, size and long life of the roots enable the grain to provide measurable soil health benefits and drought resistance while preventing soil erosion and storing critical nutrients - potentially turning agriculture into a soil-forming ecosystem,” said Lee DeHaan, lead scientist for wheatgrass at The Land Institute.
DeHaan said the staff came up with the name Kernza, which is registered and owned by The Land Institute.
The “kern” part sounds like kernel and the “za” is similar to Konza.
“Thus it sort of means Kansas grain. However, it is not native to Kansas. Its origin is the Middle East/Mediterranean region,” he said.
Researchers with the USDA and Rodale Institute began working with the grain in 1988 in New York.
The Land Institute’s breeding program for intermediate wheatgrass started in 2003. Multiple rounds of selecting and inter-mating the best plants have been performed based on their yield, seed size, disease resistance and other traits.
Research was a long process.
“In order to evaluate plants, select the best, cross those together and then plant another evaluation plot, two years is required. If you want to evaluate yield for several years rather than just one, then you can add additional years,” DeHaan said.
While work has proceeded incrementally, a huge step in the research process was successfully harvesting Kernza on a 30-acre farm with a regular combine, obtaining a semi-load full and milling it into flour.
Hobbyist bakers on staff at The Land Institute have been testing Kernza in kitchens across the country for more than a decade.
It is sold in restaurants in San Francisco and Minneapolis.
Allegrucci said there’s still a lot of work to be done before Kernza becomes a significant part of the human grain supply.
“It is just one crop. We are working on and contemplating many more,” he said. “We have research projects focused on perennializing sorghum and wheat; we have a research project focused on domesticating silphium (an oil seed and a wild sunflower relative). We have partnerships around the world, including with researchers in China who are having some success perennializing rice.”
Allegrucci said about three-quarters of the annual global calories consumed by human beings come from grains, oil seeds and pulses, or dry legumes, and those crops account for about three-quarters of the tilled crop acreage globally.
“If you want to address the challenges that result, at least in part, from industrialized agriculture - water pollution, water depletion, soil loss, soil destruction, chemical contamination and dependency, climate change - you have to address those crops, and you have to address the fact that those crops are grown almost exclusively in annual monocultures,” he said.
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Information from: The Salina (Kan.) Journal, https://www.salina.com
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