Page 28 - aruba-today-20170308
P. 28

A28

SCIENCEWednesday 8 March 2017

General Mills boosts eco-friendly grain Kernza 

STEVE KARNOWSKI                                                                                  succeeds in the long term,       much lower than conven-
                                                                                                 Lynch said.                      tional wheat, though im-
Associated Press                                                                                 Kernza was domesticated          proving. The grains are tiny,
                                                                                                 at the Land Institute, based     more like grass seeds than
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A                                                                             in Salina, Kansas, which has     conventional wheat, which
                                                                                                 been working for decades         makes milling more compli-
sweet, nutty-tasting new                                                                         to develop a more natural,       cated. But it has some ad-
                                                                                                 sustainable agricultural sys-    vantages in addition to its
grain called Kernza is get-                                                                      tem. Intermediate wheat-         environmental benefits, in-
                                                                                                 grass, which had been            cluding higher protein lev-
ting a big boost from food                                                                       used as cattle feed, was         els. The nutty flavor comes
                                                                                                 one of the first perennials to   from its high bran content.
giant General Mills, which is                                                                    show promise for feeding         DeHaan and Wyse agreed
                                                                                                 humans, said Lee DeHaan,         that General Mills is making
intrigued by the potentially                                                                     a lead scientist there.          a huge contribution to their
                                                                                                 The institute has been col-      work by creating a market
big environmental benefits                                                                       laborating for several years     for the new grain so farmers
                                                                                                 with the University of Min-      will grow it, and by support-
of the drought-resistant                                                                         nesota, where agronomy           ing the development of
                                                                                                 professor Donald Wyse            crops that provide ecologi-
crop with long roots that                                                                        also tackles the challenges      cal benefits while feeding
                                                                                                 of developing perennials         people on a large scale.
doesn’t need to be re-                                                                           into food crops. “All grain      “We’re looking at a com-
                                                                                                 production in the world is       pany that has the capac-
planted every year.                                                                              produced by annual plants        ity to produce products on
                                                                                                 that are only on the land-       a larger scale and market
General Mills on Tuesday                                                                         scape for a short time,”         them on a large scale,” De-
                                                                                                 Wyse said. “Intermediate         Haan said. “That’s where
announced partnerships                                                                           wheatgrass — Kernza —            we see these perennial
                                                                                                 represents a big break-          crops having to go, not just
with The Land Institute and                                                                      through in the design of         low-volume specialty pro-
                                                                                                 new agricultural systems         ducers but large-scale pro-
the University of Minneso-                                                                       for the future.” Researchers     duction that is going to be
                                                                                                 have been experimenting          producing change in agri-
ta to help commercialize In this undated photo provided by The Land Institute of Salina,         with intermediate wheat-         culture.” This represents the
Kernza, a wild relative of Kan., the top of a wheat floret is cut off, giving a technician ac-   grass since the 1980s.           second but largest major
                                                                                                                                  move so far to commercial-
wheat, and to incorporate cess to the reproductive parts of the plant  Associated Press           It has taken time to do-        ize Kernza, though some ar-
the grain into cereals and                                                                       mesticate it into a crop         tisanal bakeries and restau-
                                                                                                 and breed varieties that         rants have experimented
snacks under its Casca-        ability officer for Golden        The long roots benefit the      are productive enough for        with it. Patagonia Provisions
dian Farm organic brand.       Valley-based General Mills,       soil by helping store nu-       commercial use. Because          last fall teamed up with
The company hopes to put       told The Associated Press         trients and water, while        it has been grown only           Hopworks Urban Brewery
those products on grocery      ahead of the announce-            preventing erosion and          on test plots until recently,    of Portland, Oregon, to roll
store shelves early next       ment.Kernza is the trade-         reducing the leaching of        there still isn’t much of it to  out Long Root Ale, which
year. It’s also urging other   mark for the grain, which         nitrogen into ground and        go around.                       is sold primarily at Whole
food companies to help         comes from the perennial          surface waters. Kernza’s        And there are challenges         Foods stores in California,
create a market for Kernza.    intermediate wheatgrass           developers also think it        that the researchers and         Oregon and Washington
“It’s rare that you find       plant. Its dense roots ex-        could reduce greenhouse         General Mills are still ad-      state. q
something like this that,      tend over 10 feet — twice         gases from food produc-         dressing. Yields are still
if you work at it, has so      as deep as conventional           tion by trapping significant
many environmental ben-        annual wheat. Unlike con-         amounts of carbon in the
efits associated with it. So   ventional wheat, farmers          soil. It even provides good
that’s one of the reasons      who grow it don’t need to         habitat for pollinators.
we’re excited about this,”     till the soil and replant it ev-  General Mills said it plans to
Jerry Lynch, chief sustain-    ery year.                         buy a significant amount

CALL FOR OUR LIVE GIRLS SHOW                                     of Kernza via The Land In-
                                                                 stitute, though it doesn’t

                                                                 want to specify how much

                                                                 for competitive reasons. It

                                                                 will also donate $500,000

                                                                 to the University of Minne-

                                                                 sota’s Forever Green Initia-

                                                                 tive to support advanced

                                                                 research into breeding to

                                                                 increase yields and into

                                                                 how best to grow, mill and

                                                                 market the grain so that it
   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32