<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">the land institute, founded by drs. dana and wes jackson (salina, ks.), has been working for many years considering the deeper issues of water and agriculture. they have an amazing program to develop a perennial grain to replace the practice of plowing up the natural root system essential to sustenance of the great plains biome, and to reverse or at least slow the depletion of the aquifers frighteningly prevalent through current practices.<BR>
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curtis andrew beckwith<BR>
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an excerpt from an interview of dr. jackson found here:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC42/Jackson.htm">Wes Jackson - The Genius of Place</A><BR>
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<B>"Kathryn:</B> <I>One of the chief constraints to agribusiness is that in many parts of the world it is depleting fresh water supplies more rapidly than they're being replenished. How would a sustainable agriculture system use water resources differently?</I><BR>
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<B>Wes:</B> Well, what comes to mind is a study by a graduate student named William Noll at the University of Nebraska. In the 1930s he did a master's thesis that compared a never-plowed native prairie with an adjacent wheat field on common soil. He looked at several things, but the water part of it was particularly interesting.<BR>
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The native prairie allocated the rain water over the course of the year - what turned out to be the driest year on record. Even though there were plants that died, essentially all the perennial species survived. In contrast, the adjacent wheat field completely died. The prairie is a "system" that has evolved to receive and allocate water over the course of a year - it uses a natural water conservation program."<BR>
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