‘Soil is more important than oil’: inside the perennial grain revolution

Artisan bread made with Kernza flour. Domesticated from wild wheatgrass, the perennial grain is already used in breads, cereals and beers across the US, though yields remain about a quarter of conventional wheat. Photograph: Jason Alexander/The Land Institute

On the concrete floor of a greenhouse in rural Kansas stands a neat grid of 100 plastic plant pots, each holding a straggly crown of strappy, grass-like leaves. These plants are perennials – they keep growing, year after year. That single characteristic separates them from soya beans, wheat, maize, rice and every other major grain crop, all of which are annuals: plants that live and die within a single growing season.

“These plants are the winners, the ones that get to pass their genes on [to future generations],” says Lee DeHaan of the Land Institute, an agricultural non-profit based in Salina, Kansas. If DeHaan’s breeding programme maintains its current progress, the descendant of these young perennial crop plants could one day usher in a wholesale revolution in agriculture.