Heterogeneous Wes

This past weekend I attended the 32nd annual Prairie Festival at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. It was inspirational beyond my expectations.

Key speakers included Wendell Berry, Scott Russell Sanders, Josh Farley, Sandra Steingraber, Kent Whealy, and of course Wes Jackson, founder of the Land Institute. All of the speakers were given standing ovations after their lectures. They are among the central heroes working towards the advancement of sustainable living through research and consciousness raising on land use issues. Their lectures are available on CD from the Land Institute.

There is much to say about the festival, but what impressed me the most was the humor that was ever-present despite the sobering overall picture that the lecturers laid out before us.

During the evenings and on Sunday morning (the last day of the festival), musicians performed and lightened the mood. Some songs were melancholy and contemplative, to be sure -- like a song about how the air will be bought and sold and the poor will be left breathless. But other songs were downright hilarious, like the tribute to Wes Jackson called "Heterogeneous Wes."

The song traces Wes' journey from genetics student to professor to founder of the Land Institute. It went something like this: "he studied biology, chemistry, genetics to boot, then he moved to Kansas to start the Land Institute." But the chorus was what I remember best. "Polyculture...(it's perrenial). Polyculture (it's incrennial)... Crop rotation, variation, a prairie plan; sustainable, perennial heterogeneous man!"

During the middle of the song, the musicians explained that "incrennial" is a new word that combines "incredible" with "perennial."

The key to getting the humor is understanding Wes' life's work: developing perennial grains to take the place of annuals like wheat and corn. One of the perennials that the Land Institute has developed through selective breeding is kernza, which was available for sale (in limited quantities) at the Festival.

As the Land Institute's website explains, the perennial polycultures they are developing will cut down on erosion, pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, fossil fuel use, pollution, and water use, protecting the soil -- arguably our most precious resource.

Because of Wes' work on perennials, Life magazine named him as one of 18 individuals it predicts will be among the most important Americans of the 20th century. Thank you, heterogeneous Wes!

To learn more about Wes Jackson, check out "Prairie Pioneer Seeks to Change the Way We Farm" by Richard Harris on All Things Considered, available at npr.org.