farmers feel the effect of climate change intimately an
there's this conundrum they need to right now provide
people with food to eat, but also then protect the land
for future crops. National correspondent Laura Ma
meta scientists with a possible solution for her serie
farming America mhm And let me turn the line on. If
there was an award for best plant parent leader, han
would win gold. So this is pretty clean feet already.
These seats are the result of more than 20 years of
devotion to a dream. I grew up in a farm in Minnesota
and um I heard about the idea of furniture props when I
was still a kid and wanted to develop a perennial g
crop I never imagined might be kind of the first one
that people would be growing and using for those who
didn't learn what a perennial grain crop is as a kid,
it's like the grass you see on the side of a road that
comes back year after year, except it's capable of
growing food, humans can eat, it's a type of crop the
world desperately needs. The agriculture industry faces
an immense challenge. On one hand, it needs to feed a
growing population, but the process of feeding a
growing population tends to take an environmental toll
on our planet, something that no one wants. So
scientists are really having to use new technology and
innovation to come up with solutions to both issues. If
you take a look around me, this is kearns OSHA a
potential solution for both issues. This is a solution
that allows us to eat and it allows us to protect the
soil, keep our water clean, provide habitat for
wildlife. Kearns. A is essentially a cousin of wheat.
It tastes sweet and nutty so far it's grain is used to
make baked products and beer kind of spicy. I really
like this one in Skagit valley Washington, Casca
farm owned by General Mills is set to make a serial
using kearns OSHA after 20 years of reading. But
Carranza wasn't born this way, Don and his team at the
Land Institute in Kansas selectively bred it. Every
plant gets labeled and identified and a couple months
ago I took a small piece of leaf off here and then we
do essentially 23 me for plants, this process helps
predict how each plant will perform, how tall it will
be, how much seed it will grow, how large its seed will
be. So this is really a breeding ground. This is righ
exactly. Plans have to possess certain traits that mak
farmers lives easier like a crop's ability to hold onto
its seed rather than dropping them to the ground. Only
100 plants of the batch we saw made the cut. Those get
to live on in the next generation. These ones tha
the end of their genetic life here. There is one trait
that comes naturally. It's amazing to see the how
vigorous the resource kearns root system. Are you
serious This is life size so we'd is on the left. Oh,
kearns roots on the right left, me speechless. I'm
shocked. This is what makes Carranza environment
sustainable wherever humans have gone and done
agriculture, we've seen massive loss of soil carbon and
soil quality and that carbon is now in the atmosphere.
And part of the solution to climate change is to get
that carbon back in the soil kearns roots store carbon
in the ground and help prevent soil erosion and water
runoff. Unlike annual grain crops like wheat, oats and
corn kearns OSHA a perennial crop doesn't need to be
tilled or replanted every year. It is an elegant
solution. That dress is a lot of things at once. The
difficulty is just how much time is required to han
says it will take decades to transform the develo
crop from a specialty crop to a large scale one. But
for the planned parent whose devotion has sustained
over 20 years, it's a dream. Dahan plans to see throu
Lorna Guerrino salina Kansas, Newsy