The Land ReportA publication of The Land Institute / Number 80 / Fall 2004

The Land Report 2

Our Mission StatementWhen people, land and community are as one, allthree members prosper; when they relate not asmembers but as competing interests, all three areexploited. By consulting nature as the source andmeasure of that membership, The Land Instituteseeks to develop an agriculture that will save soilfrom being lost or poisoned while promoting acommunity life at once prosperous and enduring.

Contents

Clothing the Rocky Framework of the Globeby Jeff Walker .................................................................3

Effects of Placeby Jin Lee ........................................................................7

Festival-goers Speak........................................................8

Prairie Festival Audio Tapes............................................9

A River Ran Through Itby Jake Vail ....................................................................10

Consumers Need to Know Food’s True Costby Charles Francis ........................................................12

Going, Going, Goneby Maurice Telleen ........................................................14

At the Land....................................................................16

Thanks to Our Contributors...........................................18

Memorials and Honorary Gifts .....................................21

The Writers and Photographers.....................................22

Donation Form...............................................................23

The Land Report is published threetimes a year.

Editor: Scott BontzAssociate editor and production:

Darlene WolfGraphic design: Arrow PrintingArts associate: Terry EvansPrinted by Arrow Printing Co.

Staff: Ron Armstrong,Marty Bender, Scott Bontz,Stan Cox, Lee DeHaan,Jerry Glover,Stephanie Hutchinson,Joan Jackson, Wes Jackson,Patricia Johnson, Grant Mallett,Steven Lancaster, Patty Melander,Bob Pinkall, Harris Rayl,Steve Renich, Tiffany Stucky,David Van Tassel, Ken Warren,Darlene Wolf

Board of Directors:Strachan Donnelley,Terry Evans, Pete Ferrell,Jan Flora, Charles Francis,Dan Glickman, Wes Jackson,Eulah Laucks (emeritus),Mary Laucks, Conn Nugent,Victoria Ranney, John Simpson,Donald Worster, Angus Wright

Cover: Jin Lee. From Prairie(Four Seasons). There are otherpictures of the winter segment ofthis series scattered among TheLand Report, and an introductionfrom the photographer on page 7.

Above: Patty Melander. Bee onsunflower.

2440 E. Water Well Rd.Salina, KS 67401(785) 823-5376, phone(785) 823-8728, fax theland@landinstitute.orgwww.landinstitute.org

ISSN 1093-1171

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Clothing the Rocky Framework of the GlobeJeff Walker

From 1860 to 1921, with essays in The AtlanticMonthly, Harper’s and Scribner’s, Burroughs distilledscientific information for general audiences while main-taining awe for the unknowns permeating nature. He isbest known for his essays on birds and wildlife. But hisfarming background, and his conviction that home waswhere people should focus their attention, inspired himto look not at the mountains of faraway places but at theearth beneath his feet.

This perspective moved him to write an extendedmeditation on soil called “The Grist of the Gods,” firstpublished in his 1908 anthology Leaf and Tendril. Therehe said that soil is the basis of not only life, but thehuman mind and spirit. His view was comprehensive,his writing careful, thorough and reverent:

The trembling gold of a pond-lily’s heart, and itspetals like carved snow, are no more a transforma-tion of a little black mud and ooze by the chemistryof the sunbeam than our bodies and minds, too, aretransformations of the soil underfoot.

Modern soil geology owes much to Hans Jenny, whoproposed that five things combine to make soil: parentmaterial, climate, plants and animals, position on thelandscape, and time. Jenny’s ideas help us appreciatesoil as a three-dimensional body continuously variablein time and space. Nowhere is it exactly the same.

Parent materialThe mineral particles in soil originate from bedrock, thesolid rock that extends from Earth’s surface to itsdepths. Where bedrock is not at the surface, parentmaterial is sediment, rock grains that have been loos-ened and then carried and deposited by water, wind orglacial ice. Sediment can be as localized as a riverfloodplain or be vastly dispersed. When glaciersretreated north from the Missouri and Ohio rivers10,000 years ago, they left behind thick sediments, par-ent material for the Midwest’s fertile farmland.

A soil reflects the chemical composition of the par-ent material it came from. Burroughs wrote that in themaking of soil, “the leanness of granite ... has becomethe fat of the land.” He used the common convention ofreferring to any bedrock as “granite,” but his statementis accurate since the average composition of bedrockand sediments at the earth’s surface is granitic.

About all we have in mind when we think of this earth isthis thin pellicle of soil with which the granite frame-work is clothed — a red and brown film of pulverizedand oxidized rock ... but it is the main thing to us. Outof it we came and unto it we return. — John Burroughs

Farmers have long understood that sandy soils do nothold water, that clay soils are prone to waterlogging, andthat compost improves fertility. But appreciation thatthe physical character of soil is important for under-standing its fertility came relatively late in the history ofsoil study. In the main, soils were viewed as relativelyinert substrates providing support, water and nutrientsfor growing plants. By the middle of the 19th century,this “nutrient bin” notion led the German chemist JustusLeibig to propose that essential plant nutrients removedin the harvest could simply be replaced by chemical fer-tilizers.

The limited variety of soil types and the long historyof cultivation in Leibig’s Europe gave credence to thisview. But in Asia there is a larger variety of soils,many of them never farmed, and Russian scientists inthe late 19th century developed the study of soil geolo-gy, which classifies diverse types based on their physicalcharacteristics and origins. About the same time, worksuch as German biologist A.B. Frank’s on the interde-pendence of plant roots and fungi showed that organ-isms living in soil played an important role in its fertili-ty. To understand the health of soils and their ecosys-tems, people realized that they must understand thegeology, chemistry and biology at work. The study ofsoils became a multidisciplinary science.

John Burroughs, a popular early 20th century liter-ary naturalist from New York’s Hudson River Valley,appreciated this when he wrote: “The soil, as we knowit, is the product of three great processes — mechanical,chemical, and vital [biological] — which have beengoing on for untold ages.”

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‘… the grist out of which our bread of life is made …’

U.S. Geological Survey. A lime-stone quarry in Gaffney, SouthCarolina, 1904, shows soil onbedrock.

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BiotaPlants and animals are also important in determining asoil’s nature. Roots protect soil from erosion by anchor-ing it, but at the same time break down particles as theygrow and expand. Plants modify soil chemistry andexude acids that weather parent material. Earthwormsand other burrowing fauna make soil loose and porousfor the flow of air and water, while their digestion breaksdown soil compounds to make nutrients available.

Decomposing plants and animals further transformthe soil. Burroughs wrote that decomposition

gives humus to the soil, in fact, almost humanizes it,making it tender and full of sentiment and memo-ries, as it were, so that it responds more quickly toour needs and to our culture. The elements of thesoil remember all those forms of animal and veg-etable life of which they were once a part, and theytake them again the more readily.

In Burroughs’s time humus was characterized by onetextbook as “a mixture of ill-defined bodies.” Todayanother says that “the identification of the chemicalstructure of [humic] compounds has proven difficult.”Humus has defied more than a century of attempts tounravel its structure, and remains one of the great mys-teries of soil. We can separate humus into its parts, butwe don’t really know their significance in the soil.

Still, Burroughs gets to the heart of the importanceof organic matter by noting that the value of many nutri-ents is enhanced if they come from plants or animals.Most farmers know intuitively that compost is a betterfertilizer than artificial chemical compounds.

ReliefRelief is a measure of land’s steepness. Steep slopestend to have thin soils because gravity pulls loose mate-rial away. This piles parent material thickly on gentleslopes and flats.

Large geologic upheavals create relief and bringbedrock to the surface to be weathered. In geologicallyquiet places such as Australia, which lack the volume ofsediment contributed by young mountains to replacenutrients drained over time, soils can become depleted

ClimateWeathering breaks the parent material into parts to formsoil, and two types of weathering, mechanical andchemical, are at soil formation’s heart. Mechanicalweathering physically breaks the rock into smaller andsmaller particles, exposing more surfaces to chemicalweathering. Chemical weathering by water dissolvesthe particle surfaces, releasing atoms that either formnew chemical compounds, or are carried away by thesoil solution. Chemical weathering by air oxidizes thesoil to make it different colors, such as red and brownfor iron, and black for manganese.

Climate determines the intensity of the variousweathering agents and profoundly affects soil character.The two major climate variables are moisture and tem-perature. Precipitation is slightly acidic and helps dis-solve bedrock. Runoff carries away particles and solu-ble ions.

Most weathering happens faster at warmer tempera-tures, especially with abundant moisture, yet cold tem-peratures can freeze water in cracks and fracture rocks.

Weathering is virtually imperceptible over our lives,but the cumulative effects are significant. Burroughswrote of this:

What adds to the wonder of the earth’s grist is thatthe millstones that did the work and are still doing itare the gentle forces that career above our heads —the sunbeam, the cloud, the air, the frost. The rain’sgentle fall, the air’s velvet touch, the sun’s noiselessrays, the frost’s exquisite crystals, these combinedare the agents that crush the rocks and pulverize themountains, and transform continents of sterile gran-ite into worlds of fertile soil.

A relatively quick kind of weathering occurred about15,000 years ago when glaciers covered much of theNorthern Hemisphere. Their great moving mass grounddown rock, and upon melting left thick deposits of sedi-ment ranging from coarse gravels to particles fineenough to be carried by the wind. This loess blew awayto become the parent material for some of the country’smost fertile soils, in the Palouse hills of Washingtonstate and prairie from eastern Colorado into Illinois.

h our bread of life is made …’

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Our civilization is terribly expensive to all its naturalresources; one hundred years of modern life doubt-less exhausts its stores more than a millennium ofthe life of antiquity. Its coal and oil will be aboutused up, all its mineral wealth greatly depleted, thefertility of the soil will have been washed to the seathrough the drainage of its cities, its wild game willbe nearly extinct, its primitive forests gone, and soonhow nearly bankrupt the planet will be!

ConclusionHans Jenny’s original hope was that the five major soilformation factors could somehow be measured and stud-ied mathematically. That goal has proven elusive. It isdifficult to balance those combined variables’ effectsalong with local influences such as fire or human distur-bance. But his idea helps us fathom soil formation’scomplexity. Appreciation of soils inspires a reverencefor their continued mysteries, and can make us betterstewards of this life-giving resource.

Celestial dirt we may truly call it, star dust in whichwe plant our potatoes and grain and out of whichAdam was made and every son of man since Adam— the divine soil in very fact, the garden of theEternal, contributed to by the heavens above and allthe vital forces below, incorruptible, forever purify-ing itself, clothing the rocky framework of the globeas with flesh and blood, making the earth truly amother with a teeming fruitful womb ...

no matter how careful the husbandry. The Great Plains,on the other hand, owe a measure of their fertility tofresh parent material weathered constantly from theyoung Rocky Mountains to the west.

Burroughs wrote, “What transformations and pro-motion! — the decrepitude of the hills becoming thestrength of the plains, the decay of the heights resultingin the renewal of the valleys!

Sometimes, geologic upheaval appears catastrophicin the short run when the long-term results are actuallybeneficial. A volcanic eruption seems to devastate thecountryside while it shoots material high into the atmos-phere, yet the falling ash leaves a blanket of fine-grainedparticles that quickly convert to fertile soil.

TimeBefore recognition of geologic time’s immensity, thelandscape was thought to have been created as we see ittoday. Debates about the age of Earth raged for severalhundred years, until accurate dating methods at the turnof the 20th century allowed geologists to determine thatthe world was about 4.6 billion years old. This almostunimaginably long period leaves plenty of time to dothings slowly but to accomplish a lot:

[Soil] is the grist out of which our bread of life ismade, the grist which the mills of the gods, the slowpatient gods of Erosion, have been so long grinding— grinding probably more millions of years thanwe have any idea of. The original stuff, the pulver-ized granite, was probably not very nourishing, butthe fruitful hand of time has made it so. It is thekind of grist that improves with the keeping, and themore the meal worms have worked on it, the betterthe bread.

The Canadian songwriter Alex Sinclair put it succinctlyin The Elora Mill:

The mills of the gods grind slowly but they grindexceeding fine.

I’d like to have such work to show but we ain’t gotthe time.

Besides appreciating how long it takes for a soil to form,the soil geologist must allow for swings in the majorinfluences’ intensity. For instance, since the latest iceage peaked, global temperatures have increased and pre-sumably changed soil weathering rates. Also, over thepast several thousand years, humans have becomeincreasingly important users and misusers of resources,including soil. At our industrious pace the future canlook bleak, as Burroughs recognized when he wrote that“one cannot but reflect what a sucked orange the earthwill be in the course of a few more centuries”:

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tographs and botanical drawings. Two years ago I begana study of prairie plants in different stages of their sea-sonal cycles, recording the rich diversity of this plantcommunity. Concurrently I started a series of photo-graphs of the wind, using the camera’s ability to stopmotion and make the invisible visible. Both seriesexplore the particularities of a specific place: its nativeplants, its weather, its seasons.

Effects of PlaceJin Lee

For the past eight years I have been photographing thelandscapes of Illinois to explore how we experience aplace and the way it structures our thoughts and sense ofbelonging. Whether using a panoramic format, asequence of related images or landscapes that alsoinclude the female human presence, my work also seeksto reference and expand upon the traditions of landscapeart including Chinese scroll paintings, documentary pho-

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Festival-goers Speak

community. He also urged awareness that many farmershave given up organic certification because of paper-work and cost, but remain essentially organic.

Former institute intern John Curtis, of Macomb,Illinois, sought training for people to run small farms,and to bring food growing to cities.

There is a dearth of farmers selling directly in urbanmarkets even though it is more profitable, said Wicks,founder of the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia. Thatcity has an urban garden, and it contracts with outsidefarmers to supply what can’t be grown in town. “We’rekind of opening all the old trade routes that used to bethere,” she said.

Pollan noted that chefs have attached glamour tocertain farmers, and that in this nation, glamour andcelebrity count. “You shouldn’t ignore it.”

Buying local food is good but largely not an option,said Jim Scharplaz, who ranches cattle nearMinneapolis, Kansas: Most people who grow food do soin relative isolation, and most people live where foodisn’t raised. A few places enjoy the connection, but hesaid, “What about the rest of us?”

Pollan responded by telling how a distinctive varietyof wheat grown in a particular part of Italy was connect-ed through the European “slow food” movement with theAmerican kitchen retailer Williams-Sonoma — an exam-ple of how the global economy can protect the local.

Jackson supports CSAs and the like, but said thatthey can anesthetize one to the larger problem. He toldof a Barry Commoner essay that describes a womancopying a painted interpretation of a Roman myth, TheRape of the Sabine Woman. From this horror scene thewoman selected only a corner image of a little bird.With two-thirds of the world’s cropland dangerouslydevoted to just three grains, all annuals, Jackson said,we must keep asking, “Are we painting the little bird?”

Pollan wondered about fighting erosion and pollu-tion by converting America’s cropland to pasture andfeeding livestock directly.

This won’t work on the whole, Jackson said: Thoughthe dry High Plains will be grazed again sure enoughwhen the Ogallala aquifer can no longer be pumped,grain will remain needed to feed humanity. “I thinkwe’ve got great hope, but our eye is on the wrong ball.”

Taxpayers are dismissive of the need for complexsolutions to complex problems even in the face of catas-trophe, said Andres Ferreyra, a crop modeler fromMurray, Kentucky. Children need a head start in educa-tion about our dilemma, he said, pointing to the exampleof the National Park Service’s junior ranger program.“Where’s the junior Natural Systems Agriculture farmerprogram?”

It was open mike night in the Big Barn. Hundreds againfilled the place for our Prairie Festival’s Saturday nightfeature, but this time the question of where to take theworld was turned to the audience. We called it townmeeting on the prairie.

About 500 people from 36 states and Canada —nearly one-fourth of them students, possibly a record —attended the festival October 1-3. They ate Kansas-grown food prepared under the direction of chef DonnaPrizgintas, who will volunteer her time again for theevent next year, September 23-25. They also came tohear talks by Land Institute President Wes Jackson,local-economies entrepreneur Judy Wicks, activistfarmer Percy Schmeiser, and writers Michael Pollan andWilliam MacLeish.

For a sampling of what festival-goers said at thetown meeting, and for responses from speakers men-tioned above, read on.

The moderator, institute board Chairman ConnNugent, invited participants to consider three questions:What do you hope to accomplish in your personal lifebefore you die? What major changes in society do youhope to see in your lifetime or in that of your children?And what role does The Land Institute play in either ofthose hopes?

David Matthew, of Silver Spring, Maryland, said theconnection of food and the environment deserves moreattention in the news. “I want to see it become a part ofour skin.”

The time has never been better for realizing this,said Pollan, who teaches journalism for the Universityof California at Berkeley and has written to connect theobesity crisis with food policy and agriculture. Even“fluffy” Wednesday food sections in newspapers areimproving to something more than cooking promotionand recipes, he said, and interest will rise as the UnitedStates approaches another multibillion-dollar farm billand international challenges of its food trade policies.Pollan said the key for appeal to the media is to notspeak of Midwestern agriculture, which New York edi-tors will find parochial, but of food, for which theirinterest is intense.

“To know who owns our food” was the interest ofDamon Vold, a student at St. Olaf College in Northfield,Minnesota. He asked for advice on how to buy tactical-ly.

This can be researched through the Internet, Pollansaid, but the simplest thing to do is shop locally, at farmmarkets and through the contract operations called com-munity supported agriculture. He liked a bumper stickerin Europe that said, “Eat your view.” “Buying local sup-ports a whole lot of other values,” Pollan said, such as

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small schools, can be ill-informed: “They can’t tell thedifference between a Hereford and a heifer.” Breen sug-gested a workshop to educate small papers about theinstitute and its argument.

Here moderator Nugent had his say. One of theinstitute’s great attractions is the acuity of Jackson’svision, he said, and those who feel they share that mis-sion should promote it. “I think we should talk it up.”

Jackson concluded by asking, Have you joined thefight? He told listeners that the institute wants them towork in the area of their passions as part of that fight.He also asked them to recognize something that he did-n’t for a long time: the need to organize.

“I don’t know how to do that,” he said. “It’s not myline of work — and I’m not sure I wanna know.”

The crowd filled the barn with laughter.But in the interest of ecological security, Jackson

said, those interested must work together while pursuingtheir personal passions — to paint the little bird, butkeep in mind that there is a bigger picture.

Bruce Hirsch of San Francisco told of overhearing ayoung festival-goer say the bleak picture depressed her.Depression shows something is wrong, Hirsch said, butis also an opportunity.

He said that progress will require presentation of notonly truth, but values. “The facts do not matter unlesspeople are predisposed to hear you,” he said, so TheLand Institute must convey a strong set of values forcontext or, even with a big budget, it will fail. Hirschurged collaboration with people sharing core valueseven if not details. Unity is needed, he said, but now,“We don’t have a we.”

Sheri Breen, who teaches political science and envi-ronmental studies at St. Olaf College, said students atsmall liberal arts schools are interested in agroecologybut do not enjoy enough communication with The LandInstitute. She said these schools’ faculties are toounaware of the organization and the big picture of envi-ronmental studies.

The former journalist also said people get much oftheir news from small local newspapers that, like the

Prairie Festival TapesOctober 1-3, 2004, The Land Institute

nnnn S1 Election Year 2052: A Secretary of AgricultureRuns for President — Wes Jackson

nnnn S2 The High Cost of Cheap Food — Michael Pollan

nnnn S3 Corporations vs. Farmers: Whose Plants AreThese, Anyway? — Percy Schmeiser

nnnn S4 Building an Alternative to CorporateGlobalization — Judy Wicks

nnnn SU1 The Long Arm of the Land — Land Institutegraduate research fellows

nnnn SU2 Where in the World We Are Going? — WilliamMacLeish

nnnn SU3 An Ignorance-based Worldview — Wes Jackson

Total individual tapes ______ x $8 = _______

Complete set of tapes _____ x $50 = _______

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The Land Report 10

A River Ran Through ItJake Vail

Critters are cavorting and banks are collapsing in aghost lake to the west, cottonwoods are moving into theriverbed to the east. Once “a mile wide and a foot deep”from Wyoming to the Missouri, the greatest prairie riveris becoming a 400-mile-long tree nursery. In wetterparts of the country, dams are being torn out in noblerestoration efforts. Atop the Ogallala aquifer of the HighPlains — where engineers propose up to forty new damson the Platte — dams are not so much an obstacle asthey are becoming entirely moot.

Unlike the folks along the Platte, I have the greatfortune to live by a wet river. A stone’s skip from theKaw (Kansas) River, I wade through the magazines inthe Lawrence Public Library and find this in the MarchBioScience: “Since the 1970s, water use has led to amostly dry channel as the (Arkansas) river passesthrough watersheds that lie above the Ogallala-HighPlains aquifer. This leads to a situation in which thesewage effluent from the small city of Great Bend,Kansas, often forms the headwaters of the LowerArkansas.” Yikes. Wichita, your feng shui is in deep …trouble.

Due to large-scale agricultural irrigation, severalrivers on the Plains now dry up midcourse. How is itthat throughout 10,000 years of agriculture, utterlydependent on soil and water, the processes below thesurface have been ignored? Soil building and aquiferfilling take time and nonhuman labors beyond our ken.Kicking up dust in a dry wetland like CheyenneBottoms, I can’t help but wonder why we’re doing thisto ourselves and our places, and what might comenext. Natural fluctuations such as that at Bear River,based largely on snowfall in the surrounding moun-tains, are exacerbated to a relatively small degree — sofar — by irrigation and global climate change. But thedesiccation of the High Plains is a direct result of ouractions. I suppose there’s small consolation in thatafter a couple hundred years here we have grownsomewhat aware of everything’s interconnectedness.We came, we conquered, we saw. Still, irrigation isdrought. It sounds like a zen koan — or a BigBrotherly decree from 1984.

Such are the thoughts I try to push to the back of mymind as I stand shivering on a wooden walkway abovethe Platte River on the first day of spring. With the helpof a few hundred thousand raucous sandhill cranes, Ifind that I can, easily. How can one not walk aroundwith an idiotic grin in the midst of spring crane migra-tion?

Kansas, scholars proved last year, is in fact flatter than apancake. Syrup drains off undramatically, west to east,like someone stuck a knife under the left side of yourbreakfast plate. If you were to drop, say, a big strawber-ry onto your Kansas pancake, aiming for the middle, the41,000-acre dimple it made would be CheyenneBottoms basin.

Cheyenne Bottoms proper, the low and usuallysoggy half of that basin, is the main stopover on the cen-tral flyway, and probably the most important shorebirdmigration point in the Western Hemisphere. In 1988 itwas designated a Wetland of International Importance.Every year hundreds of thousands of migrating birdsfunnel down into the navel of Kansas to eat and rest.

Cheyenne Bottoms sits just north of Great Bend,named for an elbow in the Arkansas — that’s Ar-Kansas, or Ark — River where the water’s northeastcourse feels the tug of the Gulf of Mexico and turnssoutheast. With a little imagination you can peel backJefferson’s grid and feel for the energy meridians of thisland. Follow the Ark as it flows down from the heavymountains of Leadville, Colorado, and out onto the openprairie. In Chinese medicine, energy runs deep andstrong near the elbows and knees. At the great bend ofthe Ark you can feel it too.

I try to visit Cheyenne Bottoms often. It draws meas it does a duck, I suppose, or a phalarope, hungerspinning her around in the water, a different sort ofhunger driving me around the circular dike. It was herethat these eyes first saw white pelicans — pelicans!White ones! In Kansas, for crying out loud! Of coursethe innumerable birds are the main and most obviousattraction. But there is more at play, and the pulses ofthe river, birds and history are changing.

Last fall, chased by a quintessential Kansas stormthat put one end of a very confused rainbow in the mas-sive feedlot landscape east of Dodge City, I foundCheyenne Bottoms dry. Again. This was just a few daysafter I visited Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge inUtah, near Great Salt Lake. I’d wanted to see Bear Riverever since I read of it in Terry Tempest Williams’ mar-velous book Refuge. I entered with visions of avocetsand burrowing owls, curlews and pelicans. I found milesof washboard gravel road, a few swallows, a dove. Therefuge, drowning before Terry’s eyes a decade earlier,was dry.

In Nebraska I watched a line of deer saunter acrossthe reservoir called Lake McConaughy. Or, what used tobe Lake McConaughy. These days, the Platte River ispretty dry on both sides of the dam at “Big Mac.”

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the red-eye and move on to cold and quiet lands, tobring forth more gray gifts.

This is the gift of nature, which, as Lewis Hydereminds us in his book The Gift, must always move.Indeed, a gift of wildness will always move, or ceaseentirely to be wild — and certainly deserves somethingin return besides genetically modified corn and parchedriver beds cloaked in cottonwoods.

The cranes’ gift is a lesson, a happy, noisy, yet seri-ous discourse on the long view. We might continue toignore it until the oil gets scarce and so expensive thatit’s no longer cost-effective to mine water to grow grainsto feed cows at waterless feedlots. By then, a time notso far away, the cattle and oil economies that seemed tobelong on the High Plains won’t be all that we hankerfor.

As the wheaty pancake of Kansas gets ever drier,will the next generation to inhabit this beautiful opencountry be able to satisfy their hunger for cranes, forpelicans, for the sweet meaning of “river”?

The most ancient of birds, these modern flyingdinosaurs have known this place and its changes for 9million years. They know what subtle dynamics changedwhen the horse returned from its long stay in Eurasia,when cows replaced bison. For eons the cranes watchedthe news on a vast sea of grass as they flew to the braid-ed Platte and beyond. Now they look down on The Gridand the round-peg-in-a-square-hole landscape of center-pivot irrigation, shimmering ribbons of rivers in tatters.In the blink of a crane’s eye, human gathering and hunt-ing became farming, and the land changed. Farmingbecame industry, and the land was again transformed, tosomething entirely new under the sun.

The cranes, I’ve realized, are a gift. Hundreds ofthousands of gifts, falling out of the sky like a shower ofparasoled Mary Poppinses, feet akimbo. They comedependably yet remain untamed and aloof, bringingspring with them, making a hell of a joyful noise. It’s apaludal party, a veritable vernal birthday bash. Afterstuffing themselves with corn for a few weeks they take

Bob Gress. Sandhill cranes.

The Land Report 12

Consumers Need to Know Food’s True CostCharles Francis

ecological costs in the prices we pay atthe supermarket, we can show consumersthe true costs of their food-buying deci-sions — that it makes more sense, forexample, to buy local apples in seasonrather than similar products importedfrom New Zealand or China.

Any corporation, government or fami-ly that spends its economic capital even-tually will go bankrupt. Our spending ofecological capital is no different.

Our human-centered approach tonature assumes Earth’s resources are here for ourexploitation. It is essential that we recognize ourselvesas only one species in a complex web of relationships,and that ultimately we are just as threatened by ecologi-cal losses as are our co-inhabitants.

We must learn to see our true vested interest. Wemust reform our markets so we don’t keep cooking theecological books. We must learn to pay a fair price toEarth.

With the Prairie Writers Circle, The Land Instituteinvites and distributes essays to more than 200 newspa-pers and web services. For more, see page 17 of At TheLand, and www.landinstitute.org, which has all of theessays.

Our short-term economics is driving toruin the source of our riches, the Earth.Investors and corporate boardrooms focusmyopically on the next quarterly report,ignoring the long term.

Putting a price tag on the grossdomestic product or the stock market isrelatively easy. But these indicatorsignore our need to sustain naturalresources, which are vital. We must bringsecurity of our planet’s ecological capitalinto the marketplace’s calculations.

We should start with agriculture, whose footprint ishuge. It uses 40 percent of the world’s land to make ourfood, feed and fiber. As agriculture goes, so goes theplanet’s health.

Farming and forestry prices reflect the immediatecosts of labor and capital, but do not include long-runecological costs. Paying $1.25 per pound for supermar-ket chicken does not cover cleaning up rivers pollutedby poultry factories. That charge goes to society at large.

Rivers can clean themselves given time. But the soilloss that results from the way we farm today is essen-tially irreversible. This erosion washes about the thick-ness of a business card from our topsoil each year, anestimated 5 tons per acre, exceeding the soil’s naturalrate of formation. Large areas of the Midwest have losthalf of their productive topsoil in just 150 years of farm-ing.

This earthy gold mine helped build our nation.Other powers — Greece, Carthage — gutted their soilsand fell. We can mask this erosion by mining other eco-logical capital — fossil fuels used to make fertilizer, forexample — but not for the long run.

Meanwhile, also washing away are pesticides andfertilizer that poison groundwater. Taken by theMississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, the fertilizerdrives life from 8,000 square miles of the sea, costingmillions of dollars in lost fishing.

Future generations will foot the bill for fouledwater, ravaged soil, lost wildlife and global warming.

That is, unless something replaces our shortsighted,narrowly defined accounting so that we pay for the totalcost of our food consumption.

And something is emerging: ecological economics.It’s a field of study that does account for long-termcosts. We can now calculate the environmental costs ofdifferent types of food production, and compare in mon-etary terms the long-term impact of global versus localfood production. If we can devise a way to include these

The Land Report 13

Jin Lee

The Land Report 14

Going, Going, GoneMaurice Telleen

a farm sale, and, naturally, he couldn’t resist stopping in.In due course the auctioneer cleverly decided that theway to refocus on the business of selling stuff was togive this man a chance to speak and get the distractionover with. He also noted that the politician was holdingcourt right by the manure spreader. So he announcedthat the sale would recess for a few minutes to hearfrom the distinguished Mr. Bryan. And with just a hintof wickedness, the auctioneer, who happened to be aRepublican, deftly suggested to his guest that he hop upon the spreader’s footboard so the entire crowd couldsee as well as hear him.

Bryan didn’t miss a lick. He flipped the seat back,climbed up on the footboard and began, “Unaccustomedas I am to speaking from the Republican platform … .”The auctioneer was heard to mutter something under hisbreath. The manure spreader had outfoxed the hayrack.

Farming has become such a specialized, remote con-trol thing that the old-fashioned closing out farm salehas gone the way of the passenger pigeon. It would bereally hard to hold a farm sale with 1,000 dairy cows,and little else, or 2,000 brood sows, and little else, or15,000 laying hens, and little else.

The exception to this demise is our great Amishcommunities. There you can still find a crowd of neigh-bors there to socialize as well as bid — some there onlyto socialize — and a full line of machinery, cattle, hogs,horses and harness, laying hens, chicken coops, etc. Andthere on the hayrack is the Colonel.

If I had my choice between two tickets to the annualMichigan-Ohio State football game or a ripping goodbig Amish farm sale, I’d take the tickets, sell them for$50 apiece, and then go to the sale. How about you?

’Tis the season for the closing out farm sale. Or it usedto be. When grandpa and grandma had finally decided tohang it up, move to town and let the young folks do theheavy lifting. This was almost always “when the frost ison the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.” The farmwas between seasons — you might say dormant. Fallwas the right time for such a sale.

This marked a rite of passage, as surely as confirma-tion, graduation, marriage, parenthood and grandparent-ing. Just one darn thing after another, and almost beforeyou know it, you are old. That is the way it goes.

You could tell when a farm sale was imminentbecause the place had been picked up and the machinerylined up. The whole place said, “Something significantis about to happen here.”

Sale bills took up a good bit of space in the localpapers and at gathering places such as banks, elevators,coffee shops and taverns. I don’t think anyone ever hadquite enough brass to hang one in the men’s room atchurch.

What a neat institution they were! You didn’t need toload all your stuff, including livestock, and haul it orthem to a “marketplace.” Your farm was the marketplacefor that day. Your friends and neighbors would be there,some to help and some to bid and others just to visit.And, of course, there were also plenty of strangers, ifthose sale bills and the grapevine had done their jobs. Itserved both a social and a commercial end. And at theend of the day, those people would own all that stuffthat used to be yours.

A farm community auctioneer was a man to reckonwith. His work was quite an art and still is. He had tohave a very good handle on both the price and the value— and sometimes the function — of just about every-thing. He had to have a strong voice and a quick wit.And he had to make decisions quickly.

Auctioneers since the Civil War have enjoyed thehonorary title “Colonel,” and more farm-reared boyswanted to become auctioneers than to be astronauts.That is based on a recent study, but I’ve forgotten whereit was done. Some university, I suppose. You can see somuch more from atop the hayrack, where the auctioneerand his trusty clerk work.

This reminds me of a story.William Jennings Bryan was campaigning for office

— he generally was — in his home state of Nebraska.Maybe running for Congress — or even the presidency.Anyhow, he happened onto a large gathering of voters at

The Land Report 15

Pete Wettach, from the A.M.Wettach Collection of the StateHistorical Society of Iowa. Farmsale, Henry County, Iowa, about1950. The auctioneer is DanRoth.

The Land Report 16

At the Land

Presentations MadeCross-fertilization of ideas comes out of travel and visi-tors. Our recent travel is more exotic than usual.

Plant breeder Lee DeHaan was an invited speaker atthe International Ecoagriculture Conference andPractitioners’ Fair in Nairobi, Kenya. The objective wasto develop strategies for melding farming and forestrywith ecosystems. Details about the conference are atwww.ecoagriculturepartners.org/home.htm. DeHaan’spaper on developing perennial grains will be in a bookabout ecoagriculture.

Senior scientist Stan Cox visited the state ofWestern Australia to talk with university and govern-ment scientists interested in breeding perennial grains.Removal of native, deep-rooted trees and shrubs andtheir replacement with annual crops and pasture createda serious and growing problem of soil salinity acrossmuch of the state. To slow and eventually halt this,farmers and scientists agree that more trees and shrubsmust be returned to the landscape. Perennial foragessuch as alfalfa are also proving effective. But WesternAustralia is a major grain producer, and perennial grainswould help with sustainability.

Cox also explained our work to the EcologicalSociety of America’s annual meeting in Portland,Oregon.

Presentations ComingJanuary 28, South Padre Island, Texas.February 5, San Francisco.February 26, Hesston, Kansas.For details, see our calendar at www.landinstitute.org.

NSA Short CourseOur weekend Natural Systems Agriculture course forundergraduate students will be May 27-28 in Salina.Call, write or see www.landinstitute.org for attendancequalifications and application.

PublicationsA bibliography of Land Institute staff publications is atwww.landinstitute.org, under “Publications” > “ScienceArticles.” Papers appeared in Agronomy Abstracts, CropScience, Journal of Environmental Quality, PlantDisease and Washburn Law Journal.

VisitorsProfessor Peter Simonson of University of Pittsburgh,who had attended and critiqued our weeklong workshopfor graduate student fellows, visited again to give gener-ous suggestions on communication.

Natural Systems AgricultureA new cycle of winter breeding is well under way in thegreenhouse.

Because the offspring have flowered, we know thatlast winter’s crossing successfully produced hybridsfrom wheat and a perennial called quackgrass. The mostsuccessful wheat parent was an old variety that does notyield well in Kansas. This winter we will use animproved variety touted as having similar crossing ease.

Nearly all of the small-grain hybrids that we movedto the field made it through summer with no difficulty.

As for several years now, we made hundreds of newpollinations with old and new perennial sorghum linesthat are proven or potentially winter-hardy.

We are pollinating new species, two locally occur-ring wild perennial sunflowers, Jerusalem artichoke andHelianthus rigidus. They are crossed with pollen fromcrop sunflower. The two are reported to be easier tohybridize with crop sunflower than is the wild perennialwe have focused on, Maximilian sunflower.

We also are crossing the crop plant pearl millet withseveral wild, perennial relatives. Whether these wild rel-atives would survive Kansas winters was unknown. Butlast year’s plants vigorously re-grew this spring and lookrobust. We wait to see if hybrid seeds develop.

Honor for Marty BenderAt the Prairie Festival we dedicated the Marty BenderNature Area, in honor of our energetic energy scientist,who is also a self-made naturalist. This will be devel-oped on the part of our northern 206 acres, the westernhalf of which includes rugged slope to the Smoky HillRiver.

In accepting this honor, Bender encouraged deepen-ing human appreciation of the rich, diverse naturalworld. He told of beginning to develop his interest whenhe was a 25-year-old Scout leader frustrated at knowingfew tree names. His indefatigable curiosity built a com-mand of local plants, animals and insects, seasoned withgeology and ecology of the Great Plains, that is nownearly encyclopedic.

Though not in his job description, this fount is a giftto us. We honor him for inspiring us to know moreabout our place.

Bender was Land Institute intern in 1978 and stayedon as a staff member, went off to get a doctorate, andreturned as a scientist in 1991. He headed the 10-yearSunshine Farm study of the energy going in and out ofthe farm gate, on which he is writing a book.

The Land Report 17

Rhodes Scholar Ben Champion of OxfordUniversity, who is interested in rural community, stayedin one of our homes in Matfield Green, Kansas.

Prairie Writers CircleWe cultivate and distribute essays on ecology, farmingand culture to more than 200 newspapers and about adozen Web sites. The latest: Charles Francis on food’strue cost (see page 12), Diane Dufva Quantic on lifewhere buffalo might again roam, Robert Day on “Thelast tank of gasoline in America,” Dennis Keeney onfood supply fragility, Mark Ritchie on rural politicking,Wylie Harris on food choice and climate change, andKristin Van Tassel on power and domesticity. All essaysare at www.landinstitute.org, and free for use.

StaffDarlene Wolf, who was our office secretary, becameinstitute President Wes Jackson’s administrative assistantand associate editor of The Land Report. Our new secre-tary is Patricia Johnson.

Scott Bontz. Tiffany Stucky,Annie Kesler and Lee DeHaanlay out the result of crossingwheat with its perennial relative,intermediate wheatgrass. It grewin a 10-foot tube filled with agrowth medium washed awayafter the plant’s extraction. Wehave a variety of annual and

Annual ReportOur annual report is at www.landinstitute.org, under“About Us.” For a print copy, e-mail olsen@landinsti-tute.org.

CleanupIndomitable staff members revamped and brightenedoutbuildings behind the office. They carried off materialfor use elsewhere or disposal, scraped, shoveled andcleaned until the buildings were tidy, extended a shedfor greenhouse storage, insulated the shop and coldroom spaces, and gave everything a coat of paint.Landscaping in the area is under way. You’ll find a newlook when you visit. Soon, we hope.

Electronic NewsletterScoop is a brief newsletter e-mailed every six weeks totell about Land Institute activities. You may subscribe bye-mailing olsen@landinstitute.org.

perennial plants growing in anarray of tubes. This lets us com-pare roots and make a mostcompelling presentation of theirimportance: Perennial roots usu-ally have more mass and reachdeeper, and they live year-round,holding soil and not wastingwater and nutrients.

The Land Report 18

Thanks to our contributors, July through October 2004

Pledges

AAngela A. AndersonAlan G. ArnoldJennifer R. AtleePatricia A. and Tim C. Ault-DuellBWilliam C. and Terry B. BaldwinWilliam Beard IICheri BlackCharles R. and Dianne E. BoardmanLloyd D. Brace Jr.Dr. Dennis M. and Jean C. BrambleD. Gordon Brown and Charlene K.

Irvin-BrownProfessor E. Charles BrummerCJim and Carressa CarlstedtMerry P. CarlstedtJames P. and Marianne G. CassidySuzanne CassonLorna W. and D. Douglas CaulkinsRichard E. and Anne E. CourterKenneth L. CramerDavid S. and Kim CriswellDChristian De Leon-HortonShawn and Jamie DehnerAl DeSena, Ph.D. and Mary H.

DeSenaDennis R. DimickFred and Arlene DolgonBarbara T. DregalloNathanael P. and Marnie DresserEJean A. EmmonsJames P. EricksonArlen and Lana S. EtlingClaryce Lee EvansTerry and Sam EvansFEric FarnsworthDouglass T. FellRebecca V. Ferrell and Michael J.

GolecAndy and Betsy FinfrockDana K. FosterJohn K. FransonGJared N. and Cindi M. GellertNils R. Gore and Shannon R. CrissCharles G. and Patricia A. GrimwoodHJames F. HensonBette J. HilemanFrederick T. Hill IIIDavid L. Hodges and Elizabeth

KnightJohn W. HowellGary R. and Michele HowlandAndrew Hyde HryniewiczMarie E. HuffmanJNancy and Scott JacksonNancy A. JacksonDorcie McKniff JasperseMax D. and Helen F. JohnstonJimmy R. JonesKRobert G. and Judith KellyLeslie KitchensRaymond C. and Marianne D.

KlueverKeith W. KriegerLDavid R. LeitchRobert M. LindholmJonne A. LongKenneth C. Louis and Sherri A.

ResetarMMichelle C. Mack and Edward Ted

SchuurGrant W. Mallett and Nancy Tilson-

MallettJames R. and Nanette M. ManhartAndrew F. Marks and Tamara

Zagorec-MarksDavid E. MartinHelen O. MartinPeter Mason and Paula WenzlThomas R. and Nina L. MastickWilliam A. and Julia Fabris McBrideMildred N. McClellanR. Michael and Debra L. MedleySara MichlHoward Walter MielkeBart P. Miller and Lisa SeamanRobin E. MittenthalSuzanne Meyer MittenthalBonny A. Moellenbrock and Michael

I. LowryJohn H. MorrillNCharles NaborsKaren Owsley NeaseWilliam D. and Dorothy M. NelliganJ. Clyde and Martha NicholsPHarold D. and Dorothy M. ParmanSteven PauldingC. Diane PercivalRobert L. and Karen N. PinkallQ

Jerry L. Quance and Marcia A. HallRCharles P. and Marcia Lautanen

RaleighThomas L. Rauch and Joyce

BorgerdingDavid C. and Jane S. RichardsonDavid RosenthalWolfgang D. RougleSClaire Lynn SchosserPeter C. and Helen A. SchulzeWilliam R. and Cynthia D. SheldonJames R. and Katherine V. SmithLea SmithRobert and Clara SteffenBianca StorlazziToby SymingtonTGene Steven and Patricia A. ThomasMargaret Thomas and Tom BrownDavid P. Thompson and Meg EastmanVValerie M. and Roger R. VetterWJohn and Bette Sue WachholzKenneth G. and Dorothy L. WeaberRobert B. and Judith S. WeedenAnn E. WegnerDarrell G. and Lois I. WellsKatie WhiteJo M. and Stephen R. WhitedDan and Dayna L. Williams-CaponeCharles WindhamKeith V. and Kathleen M. WoldYDebra Brown YoungZDavid H. Zimmermann and Emily

Marriott

Individual Gifts

APaul R. and Jennifer AdamsRobert V. AdamsArllys G. and Lorado S. AdelmannDr. Gerald W. AdelmannSteven A. AftergoodJim AhrensJennifer H. AlbertScott D. AllegrucciBly M. AllenCarol Lee AllenDeidre G. and Cameron R. AllenRichard C. and Julia Cobb AllenJanda L. and Charles T. Allred

Brigid AmosProfessor Jonathan G. AndelsonCarol AndreasKenneth B. and Katie Hart ArmitageRobert W. and Jacqueline AshMary W. AthensWayne L. and Joyce AttwoodKristie L. AveryDavid AxlandBCatherine E. Badgley and Gerald R.

SmithAlvin F. and Jeannette M. BahlmannKristi Bahrenburg and Bernd JanzenMarlies BaileyDavid and Karen K. BakerWilliam H. and Caroline H. BaldwinJonathan S. BarkerKenneth W. and Iralee BarnardMark M. and Anne F. BaumanW. Reese and Donna BaxterElisabeth BeasleyLee BeckerLeroy W. and Marla BeikmanKirk and Debra L. BentonDr. Jeri L. BereNicholas A. and Lori BerezovskyC. Wendell and Betty BerggrenRobert R. BergstromRobert J. and Elizabeth P. BerkebileJim and Linda L. BingenThomas J. and Beatrice Isolde BirtFranklin Gene and Emma Evelyn

BissellRichard G. BjorklundMargaret M. Blake-ReaumeRobert J. BoganMeredith H. and Daniel J. BorchardtMontie J. and Patricia M. BowenAndrew P. and Leonor BowmanJames K. Boyce and Elizabeth

HartmanJohn BozarthMark D. BremerJay K. and Sara BremyerThomas M. BrennemanMichael E. and Grace I. BrincefieldChad BristowWilliam A. and Joan BrockCharles S. and Dianne BrownCheryl L. BrownDorothy F. and Bobb F. BrownThomas W. and Ruth L. BrownKenneth D. BrueneGregory W. and Susan D. BryantJohn H. BuchananCaryl E. and Cynthia G. Buchwald

Thousands of tax-deductible gifts, from a few to thou-sands of dollars, are received each year from individualsand private organizations to make our work possible.Our other source of revenue is earned income frominterest and event fees, recently about 6 percent of total.Large and small gifts in aggregate make a difference.They also represent a constituency and help

spread ideas as we work together toward greater ecolog-ical sustainability.

Thank you to you, our perennial friends.The first section of contributors below lists Friends

of The Land who have pledged periodic gifts. Most havearranged for us to deduct their gifts monthly from theirbank account or credit card. They increase our financialstability, a trait valuable to any organization.

The Land Report 19

Matt BunchDon BurgettPaul F. BurmeisterLance W. BurrJ. Walker ButinJohn B. and Eleanor S. ButlerJimmy ByunCB. J. CaldwellCarl A. CallenbachAndrew W. and Lisa M. CameronRichard A. and Cynthia Frey CarlRobert B. CarlJohn E. and Diana C. CarrollW. F. and Ruth Cathcart-RakeMichel A. Cavigelli and Martha

TomecekBen ChampionMargaret Gay ChanlerJonathan and Jeanmarie ChenetteKenneth Church and Jeanne Levy-

HinteRobert G. and Beverly N. ClarkStephen E. and Connie S. CloutierJean and John B. CobbTerrence J. and Maureen T. CollinsDr. Brian E. and Ann ConnerMaren Leyla Cooke and Neil M.

DonahueBarbara A. Coughlin and John Kevin

FallonAnne G. CowanDianne M. and Gerard CoxNancy CreamerRobert A. and Lavina CreightonC. L. and Catherine CrenshawPamela CressWilliam E. and Ann H. CrewsMarcus H. and Cynthia G. CutterDDr. Robert F. and Anna Margaret C.

DaleD. Alex DammanHeather M. DarbyMarion B. Davis IIIScott and Mary DavisJordan and Gail DawnRichard G. and Eleanor W. DawsonVirgil W. and Jan DeanWesley F. and Verda G. DeCourseyLawrence E. DellSuzanne P. DeMuthSusan L. DetweilerConsuelo Choca DiazTorry Dickinson and Robert SchaefferNoel and Diane DitmarsJan DizardOtto C. and Barbara W. DoeringAndrea F. DonlonDeborah DonnerWilliam A. and Pat L. DormanMarjorie Thompson DuckAbel DuffyMichael DuffyCarol and Robert DugganEileen DugganMarion DumontNaomi F. and Dirk D. DurantFred Y. Durrance Jr.Dr. Donald N. and Selma N. DuvickERalph and Roma EarlesThomas A. and Ginnie EddyRebecca B. EdwardsRobert L. and Marilyn Sue Eichhorn

Howard EisenbergRussell and Bernetta EisenbiseNelda Jo ElderEldon L. and Susan G. ElmoreJames E. EmrickDavid EngmanEarl and Ruth L. EnosJames A. ErdmanChristopher W. Evans and Wendy

VanDykDrs. John J. and Katherine C. EwelLester and Winifred EwyFCharles S. Faulkner IIBetsy B. FehsenfeldRalf FellmannDawn and J. FenicleRafael Andres Ferreyra and Liliana

Ferreyra FerrerR. Lowell and Arvilla M. FeyLisa A. FieldsJay FierDon M. and Mary Anne FlournoyKent and Beth Regier FoersterCharles A. and Barbara L. FrancisBarbara J. FranciscoDuane K. and Elizabeth FriesenRichard C. Fyffe and Ida M. CaseyGTimothy P. and Sherry A. GainesArthur W. GalstonJean GardnerJanice H. GastonGladys C. Gifford and Alvin J.

SchusterMark O. and Pat GilbertsonCharles N. GillerDr. Marilyn Franck GlennConnie Heaton GoddardWayne R. Goeken

Professor Frank B. and Priscilla M.

GolleyLeRoy J. and Ruth M. GoodrickMichael R. Gore and Betsy Crawford-

GoreDrs. Glenn A. and Kendra Fleagle

GorlitskyOscar A. and Margaret F. GottschoVictor M. and Tracy H. GreenJon T. and Daisy A. GregoryWilliam W. and Mary K. GreshamDale R. Griffith and Dr. Susan K.

McDonaldMarcia A. Miller and Bryan J. GrossLisa Jo Grossman and Kelly BarthDean and Betty GrovesDavid D. GundyHBruce and Mary Jane HallVirginia HamillJohn A. HamiltonDon and Nathalie HanhardtRandall R. and Saralyn Reece HardyDr. Gary S. and Lynne F. HartshornRichard C. Haskell and Nancy V.

HamlettSarah HaskettDelmar and Laverna HatesohlDaniel HaugRobert HaughawoutFrances HayashidaR. B. HayesMarilla P. Hazlett and Brian O. TriggDaniel L. and Margaret A. HebertGregory J. and Jeanette A. HeckerJohn Heider and Donna LuckeySteve HeilRollie HenkesStanley J. HerdJohn M. and Susan S. HeynemanRebekah G. Hicks and Arthur P.

RodriguezSteven A. and Annabeth Hind

W.A. and Irma L. HirschDouglas L. and Shirley U. HittJoseph O. and Pamela J. HodgesLindsay M. HoffmanBridget L. HolcombWilliam J. and Leslie G. HooksChieng T. and Susan J. W. HsiaDean and Nicki Jo HulseDeborah A. HunsbergerLauren M. and Daniel L. HuntJames A. and Sara Lou HutchisonIMichelle IppolitoDebra K. IsraelJDr. and Mrs. J. H. Jackson Jr.Gordon and Lois E. JacobsonRonald A. and Grace JagerMargaret JaggerRichard and Pat JanopaulNoah and Johanna JansenJohn M. and Reinhild G. JanzenGeorge S. Jerkovich, M.D.Bruce A. Johnson and Barbara M.

HagenBruce L. JohnsonLarry L. and Pamela J. JohnsonMarlin P. JohnsonPaul D. JohnsonRaymond N. and Lola A. JohnsonVernon L. and Betty M. JohnsonRichard F. and Lora Lee JohnstonR. Rex JohnstonGrace Elizabeth JonesScott D. Jost and Kathleen A. HolmWalter and Mary Ann JostKElizabeth A. KaelinRichard and Beverly KaiKenneth N. Kailing and D. Gail

Nickel KailingTyra KalmanAl Kammerer and Susan N. MaherJoe KarbankTimothy and Virginia Grown KasserJim KaupMartin R. KayDr. Carl S. and Gladys E. KeenerRichard W. KellerSally M. KendallTaryn KennedyForrest KinzliM. B. KirkhamLance R. and Melanie KleinThe Rev. John J. KleinwachterGerald E. and D. Eileen KlonglanJeffrey W. and Susan D. KnightStephen KobasaUlrich Koester and Beth KautzMark E. KosslerPeter M. and Barbara E. KrengelRalph and Dorilda Anne KresinU. Beate and Mara KrinkeRonald A. Kroese and Kimberly D.

ColburnGregg C. and Gretchen P. KumlienLGretchen La Budde and Michael

WhaleyCharlotte E. Lackey and Donald L.

BarnettHarry L. Lancaster III and Jane G.

HendersonMichael LandersMelissa A. Landon and Denise R.

Giving thanks …

… in this season of Thanksgiving goes with harvest, hay-ing, autumn colors, cooler nights, shorter days andfeasts, family and friends. We wish you peaceful walksthrough your countryside, whether wetlands, woods,prairie or desert.

We thank you …

… for the many ways in which you help — through yourown work, and in your help for our work to move towarda more sustainable culture. Our recent Prairie Festivalvisitors remind us how many ways people express theirconcern and their willingness to sacrifice and give ofthemselves and their resources to try to leave the world alittle better. Thank you from all of us at The LandInstitute for your contributions to our work and for yourideas and encouragement.

Happy holidays and happy new year.

The Land Report 20

Jin Lee

The Land Report 21

CulverM. Daniel and Judi S. LaneTerrence W. LarrimerLoren C. and Elizabeth A. LarsonMark C. LarsonMark LarsonLinda LawrenceAllison R. LeavittJennifer Ellicott Lee and Wendell

Ramsey HaagStanley H. and Ellen M. LeeBenedict M. LeFortMary L. LehmannLouise S. and Lewis E. LehrmanThom LeonardWillbert C. and Helene K. LepkowskiDavid and JoAnn LeshDavid C. and Patrice LewerenzPaul E. and Lynn Days LewisSandra E. LewisLeslie LihouPeter LindgrenMark S. Lindquist and Kristine

Schlangen-LindquistDonald N. and Nancy M. LinkScott Lipsett and Elizabeth WedellPatrick M. and Martha L. Middleton

LloydEloise LynchAnthony H. LyonMWilliam MacLeish and Elizabeth

LibbeyMarilyn L. MahoneyCharles R. and Barbara J. MaierJudith K. MajorGeorge R. and Marjorie J. ManglitzHugh and Joanne MarshIvy MarshAustin R. Mast and Danielle S. FellerWilliam J. MatousekThe Rev. David MatthewS. R. and Patricia M. MaxeinerMathew L. MayersJames MayhewElizabeth T. MaynardCarey and Steven Maynard-MoodyJoe MazourGordon McAfee, M.D.Drs. Lucy Remple and Loring W.

McAllisterMary Gayle McCallJohn F. McCamant and Paula J.

VandusenJoy McCannClinton and Cyndia McClanahanCallie McConnellSusanne L. and Thomas F.

McConvillePatricia Ann McCormickKaren P. McCoyCarl N. and Mary F. McDaniel Lane and Janet M. McDonaldChristopher J. and Lynda A. McElroyMichael and Laurel McNeilJohn Paul and Megan McQueenMr. and Mrs. Sidney McVeyMeisinger FamilyDouglas J. and Diane MesnerRonald MeyerRonald R. MichaelRyan MichaelJoel MichalskiKathy L. MilesKim and Dianne E. Miller

Lois MillerMark L. and Julie MillerMichael A. Miller and Nancy M.

OswaldPhilip T. and Kathlyn MillerCraig and Susan MinerJames D. and Sarah D. MinickGreg G. MinshallRichard W. and Susan H. MitchellJudith A. MohlingNorris R. MoklestadJames B. MooreKenneth A. and Faye MorleyDr. Harold J. and Lucille S. MorowitzJames O. and Esther C. MorsePhilip C. and Lona MorseDusty and Wendy MoshierRhonda L. MowdayDonna and Richard MowryDr. Samuel E. MoyerDiane M. Muelleman, M.D. and

Robert L. MuellemanGeorge and Virginia E. MyersNDavid P. and Nancy A. NedveckAndrew J. and Beth A. NeillBrent W. NelsonPamela S. Nelson and Michael A.

SpindlerJames E. and Persis Haas NewmanMike NicholsMelinda NielsenDale and Sonya NimrodCalvin and Andrea NislyWilliam J. and Shirley A. NoltingPaul NorlandDavid A. and Janice L. NorlinKarl S. and Jane B. NorthElizabeth C. NortonFrank C. and Jeanne NortonOThomas M. and Nancy O’BrienM. OberbilligGeoffrey OelsnerJoseph C. Oldham

Lawrence OlsenPeter and Susan OviattOwen D, OwensW. Dean and Doris OwensPMary Susan Pachuta and James B.

HirshNancy and Joe PaddockJohn D. and Erin E. PadenEdward B. PageRobert I. PapendickAllen Parleir and Elia WoodsHelen E. PaulsRachel M. Pearson and Jose R. B.

MarroquinJudith PeaseLeah R. Penniman and Jonah Vitale-

WolffR. Abner and Kathryne PerneyDave PerryAnna Peterson and Manuel VasquezJohn E. and Merle L. PetersonBernard L. Peuto and Anne Bertaud-

PeutoDonna PickelDwight and LaVonne PlattDave and Betty PollartDavid W. and Beverly J. PorterRobert C. and Susanna R. Monroe

PorterPaul D. Post and Kay KellyEric E. and Lora Thompson PowellWilliam B. and Mary Anne PowellRamon and Eva PowersDarcy L. PredmoreThomas P. and Sandra PritchardMarvin P. and Allison PrittsMary Grant PurdyRBruce W. RabinBeth G. Raps, Ph.D.Joan RatzlaffLoren RatzloffRobert H. and Agnes V. RaymondDonald E. and Kathy Reck

Lawrence R. and Kimberley A. ReddJohn R. ReevesDavid and Wendy S. ReinhardtRichard L. and Joyce ReinkeMr. and Mrs. Paul W. RenichStanley RiceRoger D. and Carrie L. RingerDiane C. and Jack A. RobertsonCatherine M. and Michael G. RogersJohn A. RogersJohn D. RognerLaVetta and Micah RolfsLenton D. RollerJames H. RoseVincent H. RossignolCeleste J. RossmillerMaggie Rudy and Richard J. AldenMartha J. RuheSWayne E. and Lou Ann SangsterJames R. and Helen L. SauerHilarie SchackaiJames D. Scharplaz and Kathy

CollmerJudith SchectorDon SchlickGeorge L. Schloemer, M.D., and

Sherry L. SchloemerAlvin E. SchmedemannJoel A. Schmidt and Amanda L.

RaetzmanMavis A. SchmidtTom SchmiedelerSteffen A. and Rachel SchneiderSeth D. SchoenKash and Anna SchrieferJeffrey J. SchrubenElizabeth A. SchultzScott SeirerChris SeitzCharles SesherMiner and Valetta SeymourEllie C. ShacterJulianna Shaull and Eric W. HowlandFrank Shaw and Alison Mary KayJim and Sara SheltonBrandon and Dawn SherwoodMary Helen ShortridgeBob SiemensConnie S. SimmonsDiane W. SimpsonDudley SiskMary K. Sisson and R. Douglas

AckleyWilliam C. and Vicki L. SkaerMichelle SkibaDonald E. and Elvera W. SkokanKay V. SladeLinda SleffelCurtis D. Sloan and Helen T. DuritsaDale L.K. SmeltzerBoyd E. and Heather M. SmithMarjorie Whitall SmithMichael SnowSeymour and Sara H. SohmerLarry Soll and Nancy C. MaronCarol S. Sonnenschein and Stuart H.

FeenRobert C. and Nancy W. SorensenPaula J. SpeerJeanette SpencerMarshall P. and Janice M. StantonJames R StarkWendy S. SteffensenRoslyn Anne Stein

Honorary GiftsGus di Zerega

Susan and Craig MinerDr. and Mrs. Max HalleyJoanne Halley and Thomas Rogers

Chieng T. and Susan J. HsiaBetsy Hopkins

LATD Inc.Wes Jackson

Laurie WardSvend Larsen

Melinda NielsenKathy Lynn and Josh Skov

Elaine and Ben WintersDenise and Joel Wolf-JacobsMr. and Mrs. Bruce W. RabinScott and Mary Davis

Pat and Suzanne MurfeyDave Axland

Ernesto PujolMarjorie Streckfus

Wolfgang RougleSeth Schoen

Maurice and Jeannie TelleenJim and Elizabeth Ahrens

MemorialsWilliam G. Barnes

Gary TegtmeierLamont W. Gaston, M.D.

Janice H. GastonJ.R. “Bob” Hood

Catherine M. and Michael G.Rogers

Linda C. HryniewiczAndrew Hryniewicz

Raymond and Leona LinkDonald N. and Nancy M. LinkSam McClellan

Mildred N. McClellanSally Luten Morse

Mary L. LehmannEverett C. Perry

Dave PerryPaul A. Reaume

Margaret Blake-Reaum

The Land Report 22

Betty C. S. and John R. SterlingTimothy Steury and Diane S. Noel Dean StevensKeith StevensWendell H. and Elizabeth J. StickneyHoward and Margaret T. StonerRichard G. Stout and Lynn E. MarekReginald and Elrene StoweJames R. and Joyce StrainGail E. StrattonMarjorie E. StreckfusDonald D. StullPersis B. SuddethLinda SuelterTimothy R. and Karen L. SullivanAlice and Willis SuttonEdward C. and Janice C. SwabKris A. SwansonChristopher J. SweeneyTAntoinette TadoliniJames A. Tarnowski and Judy K.

BerkshireJames T. and Rosa Lea TaylorGary E. TegtmeierAlan R. and Bonnie A. TempletonTimothy G. TerpstraMargo ThompsonJulie A. TiptonFrank R. and Judy K. TomanAmy L. TomsonDr. Beef TorreyDouglas Clark TowneSusan P. and James TreadwayJohn A. TurnerCurtis M. TwedtVP. K. VanderBekeGregory A. VanderbiltDonald and Joan VeldkampSidney L. VetterGreg Vlaming and Elizabeth Muhich-

VlamingVerlon K. and Elaine J. VranaWAlan and Jessica WagenerDrs. William and Althea WagmanAlvin WahlWilliam B. and Nancy M. WallaceK. T. WalshRichard F. and Susan M. WaltonLaurie WardThomas J. WarnerCharles A. Washburn and Beatrice

CooleyC. Edwin WatersDeborah R. and David M. WatsonMsgr. John George WeberMarc and Kathleen H. WeinbergerKenneth M. and Anne Buchanan

WeissJames M. WellmanProfessor Delane E. and The Rev. Kay

S. WelschWallace W. and Phyllis K. WeltonRobert Claire WemerHoward B. and Dorothy WestleyAndrew N. and Jeannette E. WestlundWarren and Geneva WestonTodd A. WetzelSteven R. WhartonJohn WhiteGlenn A. WiensAmy WildermuthTodd A. Wildermuth and Sanne H.

KnudsenKaren K. WilkenDavid L. WilliamsStanley Paul WilliamsSarah Jane WilliamsonPhillip J. WilmoreLeni A. Wilsmann and Andrea M.

PoniersJack A. and Angene H. WilsonJohn O. and Anne B. WilsonWallace C. WinterBen and Elaine R. WintersPeter H. Wirth and Ann Fisher-WirthJean C. Withrow and James J.

HaggertyFranklin P. and Jean Howell WitteDenise and Joel Wolf-JacobsCharlotte P. and Robert W. WolfeGeorge M. and Katharine R.

WoodwellBruce H. and Margaret Palm WyattDonna L. WygleYCraig H. Yorke and Mary A. PowellJohn and Jane YoungRebecca YoungArthur L. and Linda YoungmanZDavid E. and Linda M. ZahrtJim and Judy ZanardiDr. Robert L. ZimdahlCindy Zimmerman and John HighkinJohn M. and Mary M. Zinkand

Organization Gifts

Acme ConstructionAffleck Acres IncAppalachian Ministries Educational

Resource CenterEmma Balsiger Foundation Inc.Bank of TescottCharles Benjamin Inc.The Bronx County Historical SocietyCenter for Design StudiesChesapeake Wildlife HeritageChico Basin RanchChristianson Soils LtdCoronado Oil & Gas Inc.Cuyahoga Countryside ConservancyDAK Inc., Doug’s Optical DispensersThe Charles DeVlieg FoundationStrachan & Vivian Donnelley

FoundationWilliam H. Donner Foundation, Inc.Double J Farms Inc.EconologisticsGibson Family FoundationGrip-Fast FarmsHassman Termite and Pest Control

Inc.Hawai’i - La’ieikawai Assoc. Inc.Howse Arizona Properties Inc.The Humane Society of the United

StatesHunnewell Elevator Inc.The Hunter-White FoundationThe Inge FoundationInternational Commerce Corp.Haley Johnson Design CompanyJRC Architect, Planner Inc.The Landscape StudioLATD Inc.Leighty FoundationLimbo, Inc.

Henry Luce FoundationMarianist Novitiate Mount St. JohnPatagonia Inc.PennAg Industries AssociationPeonypatch.com LLCPremenaProvident Organic FarmRadiant Health Chiropractic LLCResource Analysis Inc.Salzman Cattle Co.Simpson FoundationSystemworksUMB BankUnderground GreenhouseVan Buren Corporation Inc.Kent Watson & AssociatesWeigel Insurance Agency

Donors of Time and Goods

Virginia AinslieLauralyn BodleBoy Scouts of America Troop 7 from

First Baptist ChurchCalliope/Chris and Frank MartinPriti CoxBill FekasFirst Presbyterian ChurchGreenAcres Natural Foods and DeliLucia GutierrezWylie HarrisRandy HutchinsonFred IutziEarl IversenSandra KubalCid LancasterDan LeshPatrice LewerenzWilliam MacLeish

The Writers and Photographers

Charles Francis teaches at the University of Nebraska,and is on The Land Institute’s Board of Directors.

Bob Gress directs the Great Plains Nature Center inWichita, Kansas. His latest book is Faces of the GreatPlains: Prairie Wildlife.

Jin Lee teaches art at Illinois State University. HerWind and Prairie (Four Seasons) series are showing atthe Sioux City, Iowa, Art Center through February.

Patty Melander works in The Land InstituteDevelopment office.

Jake Vail is a librarian, arborist, field biologist andartist who lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

Maurice Telleen is co-founder of The Draft HorseJournal, and author of A Century of Belgian Horses inAmerica. He lives in Waverly, Iowa.

Jeff Walker is associate professor of geology atVassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and has a15-acre farm.

A.M. “Pete” Wettach, 1901-76, worked for the FarmSecurity Administration. His photographs are in ABountiful Harvest.

Mark Hassman Termite and PestControl Inc.

Julia McBrideTom and Linda McCoy Charlie and Kathy MelanderConn NugentJulia OlmsteadSydney ParriottPeonypatch.com LLC/ Dave Rettele

and Jan BaldwinValentin PicassoKaren PinkallMichael PollanDonna PrizgintasHarris RaylSydney RaylHelen RidderMike RundleSalina Astronomy Club/Dr. Dorothy

HannaSalina Mennonite ChurchSaline County Sheriff’s DepartmentPercy SchmeiserMalley SissonVirginia SmithHoward StonerMarla StuckeyCork and Ella UmphreyUniversity United Methodist ChurchKeith VogelsangGeraldine WagonerJay WarrenNina WarrenJudy WicksRuth WormanTed and Vera ZergerAnn ZimmermanCindy Zimmerman

The Land Report 23

Ways to HelpGifts by check, credit card or pledge are all welcome.The stock market seems pragmatic in the face of thevisions above, but if you own shares of stock worthmore than you paid for them, they provide a lower-costway to contribute to saving soil. When you transferstock shares to a charitable organization, you deducttheir market value on the day the shares are transferred,even if that value is larger than your cost basis. Also, thecapital gains tax that would have been due is forgiven.Such a gift benefits The Land Institute at a lower cost toyou than if you wrote a check. Please call Joan at 785-823-5376 for the information your broker needs to trans-fer shares as your gift to The Land Institute.

Philanthropy SeasonImagine farm fields that look more like the wild vegeta-tion that covered them before agriculture arrived.Imagine people as concerned about the soil that providestheir food as they are about the variety of food availablein the markets. Imagine streams running more clearlythan they have in decades. Imagine alien chemicalsbeginning to decline after decades of steady increases.

All those things can happen. We ask for your helpto make them so. Once we have high-yield perennialgrain crops, it will require a little less foresight to imag-ine what farms could look like, how they could functionand what they could contribute to their surroundingecosystems. In the meantime, we are searching for morefolks like you, with the vision to believe in it and tosupport it now.

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Our research is openingthe way to a new agricul-ture — farming modeledon native prairie. Farmersusing Natural SystemsAgriculture will producefood with little fertilizerand pesticide, and buildsoil instead of lose it. Ifyou share this vision andwould like to help, pleasebecome a Friend of theLand. To do so and receiveThe Land Report, clip orcopy this coupon andreturn it with payment to

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Scott Bontz. Tom Brown, ofHershey, Nebraska, honoredLand Institute President WesJackson at our Prairie Festivalwith an iron wheel from an oldrotary hoe. Brown said he hasgiven these agricultural artifactsto honor two other agriculturalpioneers, Robert Rodale andAllan Savory. The hoe is fromthe tillage agriculture thatJackson and The Land Instituteare working to leave, but forBrown this wheel has sunlikeartistic beauty. For more aboutthe Prairie Festival, see page 8.

2440 E. Water Well Rd.Salina, KS 67401