wes jackson

[mitchmaine]

We were lucky to get to share a meal the other night with wes jackson from the land institute in Kansas. He was a guest speaker at the local college, and his sponsor invited a few local farmers to visit with him the night he arrived. He is a close friend of wendal berry, and just a delightful man.
He quizzed us all on Jevons paradox, stating in 1865 industrial England just after james watt improved the steam engine, that as soon as technology is made more efficient, rather than save energy, we up production and end up every time consuming more energy. If we had the means we would consume our very sun, and I believe it.
He told us he was in love with new England farms and we said we were in love with prairie top soil. So he went on to say he is developing a cross between wheat and prairie grass creating a perennial wheat . real no till. Mother nature created the prairies and the bovine herds grazed it down, fertilized it, aerate the soil with cloven hoofs breaking up the root mass and moving on. Sustainable farming.
Then we came along, and in a few short years, eroded a few feet of topsoil, sucked away at the aquifer, and burned a billion barrels of oil doing it.
It was so much fun listening, that we went out the next night to the college to hear him again, and if he gets to your neighborhood, I’d look him up, it was a real learning experience. one i wouldn’t trade away.

mitch

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