Wes Jackson (born 1936) is
the founder and current president of The Land Institute
.
Jackson was born and raised on a farm near Topeka, Kansas.
After
earning a BA in biology from Kansas Wesleyan University, an MA
in botany from the University of
Kansas
, and a PhD in genetics from
North
Carolina State University
, Wes Jackson established and served as chair of one
of the United
States
' first environmental studies programs at
California State
University-Sacramento
. Jackson then chose to leave academia,
returning to his native Kansas
, where he
founded a non-profit organization, The Land Institute, in 1976. He is still head of The Land
Institute, which currently describes its main goal as the
development of Natural Systems Agriculture; it also publishes The
Land Report, a newsletter about American sustainable agriculture
and agrarianism.
The Land Institute explored alternatives in
appropriate technology, 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 polyculture. He sought to have fields planted in
polycultures, more than one plant in a field, as in nature. Jackson
also wanted to use perennials, which would not need to be replanted
every year - that would leave the soil more intact, preventing
erosion, and allowing important relationships between soil and
plant to continue. The Land Institute attempts to breed plants not
presently used in agriculture into effective producers of perennial
grains in
intercropping conditions.
Jackson argued that this version of agriculture used "nature as
model", and to pursue that end The Land Institute has studied
prairie ecology.
Entering its third 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,
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 straight-forward task,
and will be accomplished by public and private agricultural
engineers when the demand arrives. However, critics have pointed
out that Jackson has spent millions in research funds without
generating results that have had any impact on agriculture.
Wes Jackson is the author of several books and is recognized as a
leader in the international
sustainable agriculture movement. In
1971, Wes Jackson's first efforts to address growing environmental
concerns, react to social concerns growing from the
Civil Rights movement and
opposition to the Vietnam War,
and answer student requests for more relevant materials resulted in
the environmental reader, Man and the Environment.
After leaving academia
and establishing the Land Institute, Jackson published New Roots for Agriculture,
partially in reaction to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability
Office on soil
erosion. This book
expanded on ideas presented in an 1978 article, "Towards a
Sustainable Agriculture," about looking to natural
ecosystems, such as the
prairie, to help solve the problem of soil erosion.
He collaborated with author
Wendell
Berry, with whom Jackson has shared a longtime friendship and
correspondence, on "Meeting the Expectations of the Land," in
response to a Council on Agricultural Science and Technology report
on
agrochemicals. Jackson's Becoming
Native to This Place, published in 1994, challenges readers to
develop a relationship with their
ecosystems and further develops the idea Natural
Systems Agriculture.
He was a 1990 Pew Conservation Scholar, in 1992 became a
MacArthur Fellow, and in 2000 received the
Right Livelihood Award. His
work is often referred to by author Wendell Berry, 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)
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), Forward by
- Life on the Dry Line: Working the Land, 1902-1944 (1992),
Forward by
- From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the
World (1993), Forward by
- The Ecology of Hope: Communities Collaborate for Sustainability
(1996), Forward by
- Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the
Precautionary Principle (1999), Forward by
- Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New
England Town (1999), Forward by
- The Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability, and the
Limits of Knowledge (2008), Editor
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
Notes and references
External links
Wikis
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