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Land Institute
The Land Institute is an American nonprofit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture, based in Salina, Kansas. Their goal is to develop an agricultural system based on perennial crops that "has the ecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield comparable to that from annual crops". History The institute was founded on in 1976 by plant geneticist and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient Wes Jackson along with Dana Jackson, who has worked with the Land Stewardship Project in Minnesota. The Land Institute promotes "natural systems agriculture" through plant breeding. Using selective breeding and other techniques, they are working to domesticate wild perennials. The organization's concept of developing perennial crops is modeled after the ecological design of prairies, which are known for their soil quality, deep root systems, and self-sufficiency. In an interview, Wes Jackson called the concept "an inversion of industrial agric ...
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Wes Jackson
Wes Jackson (born 1936) co-founded the Land Institute with Dana Jackson. He is also a member of the World Future Council. Early life and education 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, Land Institute, The Land Institute, in 1976. The Land Institute is working to develop perennial grains, pulses, and oilseed-bearing plants to be grown in ecologically intensified, diverse crop mixtures under its Natural Systems Agriculture program. In tandem with these sustainable agriculture efforts, the Ecosphere Studies program seeks to change ...
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Soil Quality
Soil quality refers to the condition of soil based on its capacity to perform ecosystem services that meet the needs of human and non-human life.Tóth, G., Stolbovoy, V. and Montanarella, 2007. Soil Quality and Sustainability Evaluation - An integrated approach to support soil-related policies of the European Union", EUR 22721 EN. 40 pp. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. . Soil quality reflects how well a soil performs the functions of maintaining biodiversity and productivity, partitioning water and solute flow, filtering and buffering, nutrient cycling, and providing support for plants and other structures. Soil management has a major impact on soil quality. Soil quality relates to soil functions. Unlike water or air, for which established standards have been set, soil quality is difficult to define or quantify. Indicators of soil quality Soil quality can be evaluated using the Soil Management Assessment Framework. Soil quality in agric ...
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Intermediate Wheatgrass
''Thinopyrum intermedium'', known commonly as intermediate wheatgrass, is a sod-forming perennial grass in the Triticeae tribe of Pooideae native to Europe and Western Asia. It is part of a group of plants commonly called wheatgrasses because of the similarity of their seed heads or ears to common wheat. However, wheatgrasses generally are perennial, while wheat is an annual. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit as an ornamental. Trials with intermediate wheatgrass, the product of which is trademarked by the Land Institute as "Kernza", show that it can be grown as a "multi-functional" crop, yielding various commodities as well as ecosystem services. Whereas annuals such as corn tend to deplete soil organic matter and require inputs, a perennial grain such as intermediate wheatgrass can yield crops while building soil organic matter.Trademark informationKernza. LegalForce. Retrieved: 2013-10-26. Synonyms Scientific names Many scientific binomi ...
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Harvesting Cycle 2 Thinopyrum Intermedium
Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-intensive activity of the growing season. On large mechanized farms, harvesting uses farm machinery, such as the combine harvester. Automation has increased the efficiency of both the seeding and harvesting processes. Specialized harvesting equipment, using conveyor belts for gentle gripping and mass transport, replaces the manual task of removing each seedling by hand. The term "harvesting" in general usage may include immediate postharvest handling, including cleaning, sorting, packing, and cooling. The completion of harvesting marks the end of the growing season, or the growing cycle for a particular crop, and ...
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The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy eating, young women's interests, and local news featuring columnists. It was created to provide a progressive alternative to conservative news websites such as the Drudge Report. The site contains its own content and user-generated content via video blogging, audio, and photo. In 2012, the website became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize. Founded by Arianna Huffington, Andrew Breitbart, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, the site was launched on May 9, 2005, as a counterpart to the Drudge Report. In March 2011, it was acquired by AOL for US$315 million, with Arianna ...
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Carbon Sequestration
Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. It plays a crucial role in Climate change mitigation, limiting climate change by reducing the amount of Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There are two main types of carbon sequestration: biologic (also called ''biosequestration'') and geologic. Biologic carbon sequestration is a naturally occurring process as part of the carbon cycle. Humans can enhance it through deliberate actions and use of technology. Carbon dioxide () is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, and physical processes. These processes can be accelerated for example through changes in land use and agricultural practices, called carbon farming. Artificial processes have also been devised to produce similar effects. This approach is called carbon capture and storage. It involves using technology to capture and sequester (store) that is produced from human activities under ...
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Science (journal)
''Science'' is the peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals. It was first published in 1880, is currently circulated weekly and has a subscriber base of around 130,000. Because institutional subscriptions and online access serve a larger audience, its estimated readership is over 400,000 people. ''Science'' is based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a second office in Cambridge, UK. Contents The major focus of the journal is publishing important original scientific research and research reviews, but ''Science'' also publishes science-related news, opinions on science policy and other matters of interest to scientists and others who are concerned with the wide implications of science and technology. Unlike most scientific journals, which focus on a specific field, ''Science'' and its rival ''Nature (journal), Nature'' cover the full range of List of academ ...
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Pesticides
Pesticides are substances that are used to pest control, control pest (organism), pests. They include herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, fungicides, and many others (see table). The most common of these are herbicides, which account for approximately 50% of all pesticide use globally. Most pesticides are used as plant protection products (also known as crop protection products), which in general protect plants from weeds, fungi, or insects. In general, a pesticide is a Chemical substance, chemical or biological agent (such as a virus, bacterium, or entomopathogenic fungus, fungus) that deters, incapacitates, kills, or otherwise discourages pests. Target pests can include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusca, molluscs, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms), and microbes that destroy property, cause nuisance, spread disease, or are disease Vector (epidemiology), vectors. Along with these benefits, pesticides also have drawbacks, such as Pesticide poisoning, potent ...
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Fertilizers
A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrition, plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from Liming (soil), liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Many sources of fertilizer exist, both natural and Agrochemical, industrially produced. For most modern agricultural practices, fertilization focuses on three main macro nutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) with occasional addition of supplements like rock flour for micronutrients. Farmers apply these fertilizers in a variety of ways: through dry or pelletized or liquid application processes, using large agricultural equipment, or hand-tool methods. Historically, fertilization came from natural or organic sources: compost, Manure, animal manure, Human waste, human manure, harvested minerals, crop rotations, and byproducts of human-nature industries (e.g. Fish meal, fish processing waste, or B ...
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Fossil Fuels
A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geological formations. Reservoirs of such compound mixtures, such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, can be mining, extracted and combustion, burnt as fuel for human consumption to provide energy for direct use (such as for cooking, heating or lighting), to power heat engines (such as steam engine, steam or internal combustion engines) that can propulsion, propel vehicles, or to electricity generation, generate electricity via steam turbine generators. Some fossil fuels are further petroleum refining processes, refined into derivative (chemistry), derivatives such as kerosene, gasoline and diesel fuel, diesel, or converted into petrochemicals such as polyolefins (plastics), aromatic compound, aromatics and synthetic resins. The origin of fossil fu ...
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Irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been developed by many cultures around the world. Irrigation helps to grow crops, maintain landscapes, and revegetation, revegetate disturbed soils in dry areas and during times of below-average rainfall. In addition to these uses, irrigation is also employed to protect crops from frost, suppress weed growth in grain fields, and prevent soil consolidation. It is also used to cool livestock, reduce dust, dispose of sewage, and support mining operations. Drainage, which involves the removal of surface and sub-surface water from a given location, is often studied in conjunction with irrigation. There are several methods of irrigation that differ in how water is supplied to plants. Surface irrigation, also known as gravity irrigation, is the olde ...
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Soil Erosion
Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the Topsoil, upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, Atmosphere of Earth, air (wind), plants, and animals (including humans). In accordance with these agents, erosion is sometimes divided into water erosion, glacial erosion, snow erosion, Aeolian erosion, wind (aeolian) erosion, Zoogenic erosion, zoogenic erosion and anthropogenic erosion such as tillage erosion. Soil erosion may be a slow process that continues relatively unnoticed, or it may occur at an alarming rate causing a serious loss of topsoil. The loss of soil from Agricultural land, farmland may be reflected in reduced crop production potential, lower surface water quality and damaged drainage networks. Soil erosion could also cause sinkholes. Human activities have increased by 10–50 times the rate at which erosion is occurring world-wide. Exc ...
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