3 minute read
A Perennial Partnership
MTSU professor Song Cui teams up with a Kansas-based sustainable agriculture agency to prove less tilling tastes great
Tennessee’s motto is “Agriculture and Commerce.” Agriculture has always been Tennessee’s No. 1 industry and synonymous with its brand.
Food grown in Tennessee is planted in carbon-rich topsoil. But topsoil is disappearing at a terrifying rate across the U.S. According to a study by Cornell University, almost 2 billion tons of farmland are lost to soil erosion every year. From a food supply standpoint, it’s nothing short of a crisis.
Tennessee farmers boast a proud history of employing conservation methods to reduce the erosion of topsoil across the state. That’s one of many reasons the nonprofit Land Institute, based in Salina, Kansas, has its eye on Tennessee. Through the selective breeding of seeds and the development of perennial grain crops that don’t need replanting annually, the Land Institute is a national leader in ecologically sensitive agriculture.
Now, as a result of a recent partnership between the institute and MTSU Agriculture professor and researcher Song Cui, perennial plants like grain, sorghum, and sunflowers are being tested in Tennessee soil. It’s creating new opportunities for Tennessee farmers.
Perennial grains like those the Land Institute pioneered grow long roots that extend deep into the ground. By doing so, they build healthy soil, better absorb water, protect soil from erosion, retain nutrients, foster biodiversity, and remove carbon dioxide from the air.
The Land Institute’s signature product to date is Kernza, a perennial grain it developed, which flourishes in the Midwestern U.S. Kernza produces a grain yield for about three years—a significant improvement over annual crops requiring tilling each year.
Major food manufacturers like General Mills and supermarket chains such as Whole Foods are already deep in the Kernza business. Consumers nationwide can easily find Kernza products, including beer, on grocery store shelves.
The question for the institute now is: Can Kernza (and other perennial crops) viably grow in other parts of the country and world? To that end, Land Institute has launched a movement to scale perennial agriculture, building connections to ensure that perennial grains will be developed on every continent except Antarctica. In doing so, it supports more than 200 researchers in more than 30 countries.
Enter Cui, who become a partner to investigate some of the institute’s lines in plant breeding in Tennessee last year.
“They might be shooting for higher yield, better adaptivity, adaptivity to a new environment, a lot of things,” Cui said of the institute’s interest in MTSU and Tennessee farming.
“They have varieties of breeding lines that no one has ever grown in the Southeastern U.S. Now we are!”
Cui most recently planted Kernza in November 2024. Their roots are huge and very deep—at least three or four feet.
“You’re looking about almost zero management,” Cui said. “It’s one time planting and getting them established, maybe some weeding at the very beginning.”
Cui’s early success with perennial plants is creating buzz in the Tennessee farm community.
“Tennessee farmers are interested in growing these,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘Hey, can I have some seeds? I want to grow it.’ ”
—Drew Ruble
