This Friday, June 23, Sustainable Agriculture Pioneer Wes Jackson will speak on "The Necessity to Save Farmland: Beyond Aesthetics and Nostalgia." Life Magazine calls Jackson one of "the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century." Jackson is a MacArthur Fellow and the founder of the Kansas-based Land Institute. If you are interested in a preview of his ideas, Peter Payette will be interviewing Wes Jackson this Friday morning on "Points North," at 9:00 a.m. on IPR News Radio, FM 91.5.
The presentation will be held at Leland School's Performing Arts Center, Friday, June 23, at 5:00 p.m.
Here is a quote from Jackson, from the Leelanau Conservancy's website:
Here at The Land Institute people are out there breeding crops, doing the experiments, evaluating germ plasm, because we think that in a 25- to 50-year time frame it's possible to build an agriculture based on the way natural ecosystems work,” said Jackson. He cites advantages of perennial crops that would achieve ecological stability and grain yields that could be as good as those from annual crops. In the process, Jackson contends, would be an end to the huge problem of soil erosion, since annual plowing would no longer be needed. A dramatic decrease in the use of agrichemicals would also result. “We believe that an agriculture is well within reach that is resilient, economical, ecologically responsible and socially just," added Jackson.
I will have to work Friday, so I'll miss this event. I hope that Jenny from Meadowlark will go and send me her comments.
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