A Grain Agriculture Fashioned in Nature’s Image: The Work of the Land Institute

Modern industrialized agriculture is based on monocultures of annual crops requiring massive levels of biocide, fertilizer, and fossil fuel inputs. This form ofagriculture has led to soil erosion and chemical contamination ofsoil and ground water. The Land Institute is studying a new modelfor grain agriculture, based on the prairie ecosystem, involving diversified plantings ofperennial seed crops. Species we have studied include eastern gamagrass, wildrye, Illinois bundlejlower, wild senna, Maximilian sunjlower, hybrid perennial sorghum, and hybrid perennial rye. The Land Institute s research program develops perennial polycultures based on basic questions concerning high seedyield, overyielding, nitrogen supply by a legume component, and biological management ofweeds, insect pests, and plant diseases. Results to support the model are presented. Environmental Problems of Industrial Agriculture In terms ofretum on labor, North American style modern agriculture is a highly productive form of seed, fruit, and fiber production. Over the last few decades, however, it has taken increasingly more energy to produce a unit of grain with industrial farming methods, with a ratio ofenergy expended to food energy consumed in the U.S. of about 10 to 1 (Lovins et a1. 1984). In addition to high fossil fuel energy requirements, this productivity has arisen largely through simplifying agroecosystems to feature monocultures and tailoring them to maximize a single component, yield, while ignoring or disrupting many of the links between organisms, the soil, and the physical environment that serve to regulate natural communities. The industrialization of agriculture has led to such profound problems as soil loss, depletion and contamination of water supplies, loss of genetic diversity in cultivars, fossil fuel dependency, pesticide poisoning of farm workers and non-target wild species, and development of pesticide resistance in pests.