It’s resilient, regenerative, and revolutionary for agricultural sustainability: it’s Kernza®. This time of the year, you might see Kernza about 3-4 feet high and starting to sprout yellow flowers. In about a month, Kernza will start to be harvested in Wisconsin by researchers and farmers alike.

The Kernza grain, harvested from intermediate wheatgrass, is a cousin of annual wheat. And like wheat, it can be used to make everything from cereal to (slightly sweet) sourdough to specialty beer. Unlike wheat, Kernza is a perennial crop, making it radically unlike the crops we’re used to seeing in Wisconsin farm fields.

Twenty years after first being developed, Kernza is now grown by more than 100 farmers on nearly 4,000 acres across the globe. It’s been developed by The Land Institute, a non-profit research organization dedicated to perennial agriculture based in Salina, Kansas.

The work to domesticate Kernza was guided by Dr. Lee DeHaan, Lead Scientist of the Kernza Domestication Program at The Land Institute. He joins host Douglas Haynes for a program on Kernza, agricultural sustainability, and perennial polyculture.

Also joining the program is Erica Schoenberger, a graduate student in Agroecology at UW-Madison, where she studies nutrient management for Kernza as part of a research lab led by Dr. Valentin Picasso.

Photo of Kernza® courtesy Erica Schoenberger. 

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