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A Perennial Dream Our Daily Bread 30

30 August 2018

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Wheat is an annual plant; it dies after setting seed. Each year, the farmer has to prepare the land, sow seed, fertilise and protect the plants. When the ground is bare, between crops, wind and water can erode the soil. The shallow root systems of annual plants fail to exploit the resources of the soil and do little to improve it. So although wheat feeds us, it does so at considerable cost to the environment. It isn’t sustainable.

What if wheat were perennial?

Wes Jackson The Land Institute
Wes Jackson: “If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough.”

Photo by Jerry D. Glover; annual wheat on the left, Kernza™ on the right.

Filed under: Our Daily Bread, Podcasts

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Eat This Podcast has been going since March 2013. That’s a long time in podcast world. In that time, it has twice been nominated for a James Beard Award, although it remains a labour of love rather than a search for glory.

I am a biologist with a keen interest in food and agriculture. Eat This Podcast allows me to pursue my interests and share what I find.

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread was a series of micro-episodes on the history of wheat and bread, with an episode every day through the month of August 2018.

Posts are in correct chronological order, so you need to scroll to the bottom to find the latest.