Campuses:
By Becky Beyers
(n) An approach to environmental protection, landscape preservation, rural employment, and food security which can be broadly classified as benefitting society, culture, the economy, national security and other concerns.
The phrase doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue: multi-functional landscapes. But the concept—growing perennial energy crops on agricultural and forest land and reaping the benefits of improved water quality and wildlife conservation, along with the economic rewards—is increasingly seen by agronomists and ecologists in CFANS as a path toward sustainable, viable rural landscapes and communities.
It’s a big topic. Too big, in fact, to address in a single magazine story. So we chose to explain by example. Here, then, are five ways CFANS graduate students and researchers are exploring the possibilities of multi-functional landscapes.
A crop with energy applications that doesn’t have to be replanted every year has obvious ecological benefits, says Kantar, a Ph.D. student in agronomy and plant genetics. He’s cross-breeding annual sunflowers with Jerusalem artichokes to get a perennial plant that produces harvestable sunflower seeds and regenerates its own growth via tubers.
A perennial sunflower has enormous potential as a multi-functional crop because it would mean less erosion and soil nutrient loss. But creating a perennial version of a plant grown for its seeds isn’t as simple as it sounds. “There are tradeoffs,” Kantar says. “Why would a plant invest in both seed organs and perennial organs? Logically, it makes sense that there will be some negatives, but we just don’t know the extent of them yet.” His goal is to keep selecting crosses with the best chance of surviving from year to year but that also maintain 75 percent to 80 percent of the yield that annual sunflowers provide. Ideally, perennial sunflower seeds would contain enough oil to make biodiesel, but for now the goal is to breed a plant that will survive and produce enough seeds to be economically viable.
Perennial grain crops aren’t a new idea, nor are sunflowers a new crop, Kantar says. “People have been talking about this for 80 years,” but new breeding technologies make the idea more feasible. Sunflower has been a major North American crop for centuries, but a volatile market for the seeds and complicated growing techniques have slowed its growth with Minnesota farmers.
“People are good at growing corn and soybean, so it’s tough to convince them to do something else,” Kantar says. “If there was a viable perennial alternative, and you could provide economic incentives, there would be a lot of interest.”
No matter how good a crop is, farmers have to see benefits before they’ll grow it. That’s the premise behind Candi Schulman’s research.
The first-year master’s degree student in forest resources is talking to farmers and landowners around the state about what stops them from adopting perennial biomass systems.
Eventually, her efforts will lead to policy recommendations about what would encourage more sustainable, perennial crops.
“We’re looking at the social and economic constraints,” she says. “For example, most people grow corn and soybeans and they may not see a reason to change. But if we can couple an economic benefit along with the environmental benefits of perennial crops, maybe that will prompt them to take another look at other crops.”
Schulman is quick to point out that her project does not aim to take away the successes of traditional agriculture, but to make it more efficient and to help producers think strategically. “Maybe there’s an area of your land where it’s difficult to grow corn, but there’s an alternative crop that would grow there and would make the land more economically and ecologically sustainable.”
Vegetables provide important nutrients for humans, but growing them also depletes nutrients from the soil. One possible solution: legumes that would replenish the soil and provide a marketable food crop for organic farmers.
Adria Fernandez, a master’s degree student in agronomy and plant genetics, is researching the viability of two such crops: winter-hardy field peas and drought-tolerant lentils. The peas, developed in Washington state and sold as dry peas, are hardy in other areas of the United States, but until now edible versions haven’t been able to survive a Minnesota winter. Lentils are widely grown and eaten in Asia and Canada, but are less familiar to U.S. consumers.
In both cases, she says, growing consumer interest in local foods and plant-based diets creates a need for the legumes. The crops could be distributed to consumers via a number of channels, including community-supported agriculture, restaurants or through local farmers’ markets. “There is a lot of relationship marketing that goes on in the local-food communities, but there are simply not a lot of vegetable proteins available,” she says. “Farmers tell us these would go over very well.”
Organic farms need the nitrogen-fixing legumes in their soil, Fernandez says, and lentils and peas are best suited to small farms because growing them requires more hands-on work. “But they could be applicable at any scale, as a piece of a larger system. A larger farm could incorporate them as one part of the landscape.”
Hazelnuts hit the jackpot in terms of multifunctionality: they can be used as fresh food, for processed foods or pressed for oil. The plants, which can live as long as 50 years, are grown in hedgerows, with vegetated alleys between them to reduce soil erosion and enhance ecological diversity.
Lois Braun, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, works with hybrid hazelnuts—a cross between wild Corylus americana, which are native to the Midwest, and their domesticated European cousins. The hybrids combine the winter hardiness and disease tolerance of the natives with the high nut yields and desirable nut qualities of the European species. So far, the hybrids have lacked the yield and nut quality needed for a viable crop, so Braun is trying to develop better hazelnuts.
Her first step is to identify the best hazelnuts currently on the landscape in the region. Every August, she visits more than a dozen sites where farmers are growing hazelnuts to choose which ones have the most potential as parents for the variety she hopes ultimately will emerge. She propagates the selected ones, to maintain their genetic identity, and transplants the resulting new plants into four nurseries for further evaluation. The best plants to emerge from the nurseries will be disseminated to growers and used for further breeding work.
Working as an organic field consultant persuaded Braun that perennial crops are key to producing a sustainable, healthy landscape. “It really is the way to go,” she says. “Hazelnuts fit. They’re not perfect, but they make a contribution in the right direction.”
“Marginal” land—unsuitable for traditional crops, but still viable for plants and wildlife—may yield economic and ecological benefits, Peter Gillitzer’s research has found.
In one project, Gillitzer worked on a team that evaluated the bioenergy potential of plants harvested from grasslands and unused crop land. “Our idea was to look at how to use those materials while improving the ecosystems,” he says. “The benefits are that this wouldn’t be starting something new—the material is already there—and you’re not using your feedstocks for energy.” The team learned that harvesting the biomass also would have ecological benefits, because both grassy and woody lands tend to be taken over by invasive species if they are passively managed.
The team evaluated the plants found in marginal lands from a wide swath of Minnesota for their ethanol-generating potential, Gillitzer says. “If you go to an energy facility with biomass, they need to know the characteristics of the material.” The project’s next stage will involve more detailed studies of plants as well as how changing the mix of plants in a landscape would affect yields and other properties.
In a second project, Gillitzer worked on a team that cooperated with Aveda Corp. and the White Earth tribe to sample more than 500 species of plants and plant products found in marginal landscapes for their potential as cosmetic and personal-care products. One group of species has great possibilities, he says. “It all comes back to the idea of multi-functionality; you think this land is marginal, but we may be able to harvest a high-value chemical while preserving that natural landscape.”
