Forever Green Initiative at the U of M: Rethinking Minnesota’s Amber Waves of Grain

By Michelle M. Sharp, Founder and Content Creator of Meet the Minnesota Makers

Here’s answers to the questions you didn’t know you had about the Forever Green Initiative at the University of Minnesota. 

Who? 

Founded in 2012 by the late Don Wyse and co-director Nick Jordan, this unique research group in the College of

Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) combines research with commercialization efforts. Forever Green is built on Dr. Wyse’s long career of developing new crops and sustainable agriculture in partnership with farmers and rural communities.

What? 

A portfolio of over 15 crops including perennial wheat, oats, flax, and alfalfa, winter annuals like pennycress and winter durum, and native woody crops like hazelnuts and elderberry. Multidisciplinary teams work to develop each of these crops and launch the product from the test field into our state’s agricultural landscape. 

These crops are locally-grown, beneficial for soil and water, and, in the case of the food crops like Kernza® perennial grain, quite delicious. 

Adding perennial and winter-annual crops to our established summer-annuals (primarily corn and soybeans), makes Minnesota’s agriculture healthier. It adds options that make farms more productive through an extended growing season.

Where? 

Working with Minnesota’s farmers, Forever Green improves rural communities by creating new industries and employment opportunities. 

This is a big deal. Minnesota has 55.6 million acres to contain our more than 10,000 lakes. 27 million, nearly half of them, are farmland. 

How? 

Partnerships with farmers, producers, AURI, The Land Institute in Kansas and environmental groups like Friends of the Mississippi River add to the productivity and profitability of Minnesota’s agriculture. 

Key to the success of these programs is partnering with makers to develop products that feature these amazing ingredients. There needs to be a market to close the loop. 

When you buy products like the Marvel Naan from St. Cloud’s Artisan Naan Bakery, Kernza Cinnamon Pancake Mix from Sturdiwheat or a CSA from Perennial Pantry, you provide a stable marketplace for your local farmers. You also support a local maker, who purchases from local mills and farms, who follows more sustainable agricultural choices, which makes for healthier soil and water for everyone. 

We have an innovation ecosystem in the upper Midwest developing new opportunities in agriculture. It’s like the farming equivalent of Silicon Valley. 

Why? 

To make the sustainable crops profitable for farmers across Minnesota. 

To make it possible for our farmers to still be able to run a profitable business in spite of climate variability and pest and disease pressures. 

Ready to dig deeper? 

An especially unique attribute of the Forever Green Initiative is its focus on commercialization, adoption and scaling. Colin Cureton, Forever Green’s Director of Adoption and Scaling, directs a team that focuses on moving crops onto farmers’ landscapes. Once they’ve proved that the crop can grow, Colin’s team works with many partners to develop markets around these crops to add a commercial value to the environmental one. 

“Broadly speaking, we think of three areas of work: strategy, landscape, and market,” explained Colin. “We need many businesses sourcing these crops, making products and moving them to consumers, either as ingredients or as finished products.”

Getting these new products into the real world also depends on a concept called societal lift. In addition to

“pushing” a new crop out of the lab and the market “pulling” it onto the landscape, societal lift means that we all grab on to something and lift together. Colin proposed thinking of renewable energy as an analogy. “Someone has to develop solar panels, that’s push. Someone has to figure out how to make it economical, that’s pull. But then society has to decide if this is something we’re going to support over the long term? Are we going to reduce our fossil fuel use and increase our renewable energy use?” That takes policy, funding, and culture shifts to make the change lasting. 

What Forever Green does in agriculture follows a similar path. The biggest difference is that we, as a culture, don’t develop new crops (non GMO) very often. Maybe we’re just more used to innovation in other forums? Forever Green works to change that. They want us all to know about flavor-packed American hazelnuts, Camelina oil’s health benefits, the versatility of locally-grown elderberries and currants, and hulless barley’s protein power.  

Regenerative Agriculture has a Broad Umbrella

Regenerative agriculture does not have a codified definition. It’s a term that we’re starting to hear a lot. How does Forever Green approach it? 

Colin shared, “Regenerative agriculture is really about more effective stewardship of energy cycles. How we utilize the amazing energy of the sun and photosynthesis. How that relates to the water cycle and the carbon cycle, and the life and death of plants. It comes down to respecting and interacting with that process.” This is not Colin’s own made-up definition, it is one he has heard frequently from indigenous people, and it differs from other framing you might hear.

Reducing synthetic fertilizers and chemical insecticides, incorporating animals, keeping the soil covered, reducing tillage, and normalizing seasonality are all common regenerative practices in current farming systems. Increasing diversity of plantings is key too. “I think a great definition of regenerative agriculture would be if our agricultural systems embodied more of the principles and functions of natural systems,” stated Colin. 

It’s also context specific. What’s right for Minnesota may not work in the southern US or an arid region. Forever Green recognizes the farmer as the steward of their land. They work with growers of all types and production scales. “It’s a big effort to find alternatives. We recognize the risk that a farm faces when planting a new alternative crop, or even an established one,” said Colin. “Those alternatives have to enter the market in a way that’s compelling, delicious, and accessible for the farmers to take that initial risk.” 

Why Kernza? 

The most interesting thing about Kernza happens below ground. Its root system can grow to be eight to twelve feet

deep. This literally holds soil together, builds soil structure, and reduces the nutrients that run off into our water.

It’s a powerful image. 

It also turns out that it’s a really tasty grain. “It has a slightly spicy, slightly cinnamon-y profile to it. For a long time, our grains and oils were meant to be neutral. It’s like the more neutral they can be, the better,” smiled Colin. “It’s really interesting to have this grain that’s almost like the taste of Minnesota, or could be one day.”

It turns out that its flavor appeals to grazing animals as well. For farmers who need forage, Kernza is a viable option. Over time it reduces weed pressure thanks to its strong root system. Since it doesn’t have to be planted every year, growing Kernza frees up time for farmers in the hectic spring season. 

“The most exciting part is that we’re really just getting started,” shared Colin. “Wheat has had more than 7000 years of human testing. Kernza has about 20 years of work behind it.” 

Sustainability-Focused Businesses in Minnesota

Forever Green is the sponsor of the Meet the Minnesota Makers summer 2024 series that celebrates Sustainability-Focused businesses throughout Minnesota. These businesses commit to a mission of creating high-quality products that offer solutions.

Cool Trash turns plastic waste into reusable treasure. Beth Dooley makes locally-sourced from scratch cooking

accessible. Fiddlehead Knob neutralizes the high energy cost of year-round mushroom production with solar panels. The Okee Dokee Brothers invite us all to visit Brambletown, a musical space where it’s safe to talk about the thorny parts. Honeydew Fields grows flowers in a rainbow of biodiversity.   

Artisan Naan Bakery, Sturdiwheat, Perennial Pantry, and River Rock Baking Company make something new from Minnesota-grown Kernza perennial grain. From flatbreads to crave-worthy crackers, muffins to pancake mix, these innovators elevate Minnesota’s agricultural innovations by bringing this product to market. You can even find Kernza beer. 

Forever Green works with more than a dozen other crops to provide growers, makers, and consumers with sustainable choices. “The purpose of land-grant institutions is to develop solutions to our grand shared challenges,” reflected Colin. “I get to wake up and work on that with a lot of other public employees, on behalf of our communities, our soil, water, and the climate. This is people’s tax dollars at work. It’s really amazing.” 

Learn more about the University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative on their website and YouTube channel. 

Visit meettheminnesotamakers.com or follow @meettheminnesotamakers on Facebook and Instagram to discover the small business owners leading Minnesota on a tasty sustainable path forward. Meet the Minnesota Makers is a news site that connects you to the local food, farms, artists and artisans that make Minnesota thrive