<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/5/1620913705905.png" alt=" Kernza, a perennial grain, growing in a greenhouse at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. Brian Grimmett / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption> Kernza, a perennial grain, growing in a greenhouse at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. Brian Grimmett / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>By BRIAN GRIMMETT <a href="https://www.kmuw.org/post/these-kansans-see-way-fight-climate-change-breeding-ecofriendly-crops">Kansas News Service</a>SALINA, Kansas — Ebony Murell and a few interns 
meticulously sort 99 kinds of silphium. It’s a wild relative to a 
sunflower. And the biologists at <a href="https://landinstitute.org/about-us/" target="_blank">The Land Institute</a>
 — an outfit devoted to finding out how science can make farming more 
planet-friendly — want to unravel the plant’s secrets for tolerating 
bugs and diseases.“We don’t know what all of these traits mean in terms of plant defenses,” Murell said. “Any or all of them could matter.”The
 thousands of data points collected about bug resistance make up just 
one small part of the larger goal of developing the wild silphium into a
 perennial crop farmers can plant and harvest for seed oil.Unlike
 annually planted crops such as wheat, corn and sorghum, perennial crops
 more closely mimic how a natural prairie works. Instead of planting new
 seed every year, farmers can plant once and expect years of harvests.About
 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of natural 
ecosystems comes from agriculture. But the 50 or so researchers at The 
Land Institute think they can show farmers how to reduce their carbon 
footprint.Murell said the deep root systems of perennial agriculture mimic natural prairie. They stop erosion and rebuild the soil.<h2>It’s all about the roots</h2>All
 plants are natural carbon scrubbers. They take carbon dioxide from the 
atmosphere and turn it into leaves and flowers and grain. But it’s the 
roots that really matter. They take the carbon from the air and turn it 
into dirt.The bigger and deeper the roots, the more carbon is sequestered.So
 diets based on perennial grains would tread more lightly on the earth 
than the plant-harvest-plant pattern that defines most farming.“This
 is the best opportunity we have to save the soils and still produce 
food,” said Tiffany Durr, the Land Institute’s greenhouse manager.Some
 Land Institute projects attempt to domesticate wild perennial plants, 
like with silphium. But it’s also working on perennializing existing 
annual crops such as wheat and sorghum — all through selective breeding.It’s a daunting task.The
 Land Institute has been working on developing perennial grains since 
1976. So far, none of its work is widely used among farmers.Durr gets the skepticism.“We’re
 hippieville out here doing something, they don’t know what,” she said. 
“People didn’t understand that there was real science going on — big 
hope, grounded in real science.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/5/1620913785465.jpeg" alt=" A field of Kernza perennial grains at the Land Institute. Credit Brian Grimmett / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption> A field of Kernza perennial grains at the Land Institute. Credit Brian Grimmett / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>The rise of Kernza</h2>Some of that science is 
beginning to pay off. Kernza is an intermediate wheatgrass developed by 
the Land Institute that can be used in similar ways to wheat. Durr said 
it’s finally gotten to the point where it’s getting mainstream attention
 and major academic research partners. In fact, right now <a href="https://perennial-pantry.com/products/kernza-flour?variant=39258070450219" target="_blank">you can actually buy Kernza flour</a>.“It’s not just a big, pie-in-the-sky idea.” Durr said. “It’s tangible, it’s real and there’s a lot more excitement.”But
 challenges remain. Annual crops such as wheat put their energy into 
making bigger seeds, rather than developing root systems.“The 
challenge that the Land Institute and others are trying to do: Can you 
have a perennial system that would maintain the roots, but yet produce 
seed?” said Kansas State University soil microbiologist Chuck Rice. “Can
 you have your cake and eat it too?”He said perennial crops 
accomplish what they already know about better farming and conservation 
practices — don’t till up the ground, keep it covered with some plant 
growth between crops, and increase the diversity of what’s planted — in 
one convenient package.“This is in my mind a workable solution,”
 Murrell said. “And that’s what motivates me to want to plant hundreds 
of plants in a greenhouse and try to do these crazy experiments that are
 so hard.”Brian Grimmett reports on the environment, energy 
and natural resources for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service. 
You can follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/briangrimmett?lang=en">@briangrimmett</a> or email him at grimmett@kmuw.org.

Kansans fight climate change by breeding ecofriendly crops