Billed as the new wonder grain — a wheatgrass with a nutty, graham or rye-like flavor — Kernza uses very little nitrogen fertilizer, and its extremely long roots make it a powerhouse at soaking up nitrogen that would otherwise seep into groundwater…
Looks like nitrogen pollution is a real problem:
Nitrogen from fertilizer and manure is essential for crop growth, but in high levels can cause a host of problems, including coastal “dead zones”, freshwater pollution, poor air quality, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions.
This NPR article from a 2019 look at the plant has some good background:
The campaign [for Kernza] began 40-some years ago with a scientist-environmentalist named Wes Jackson. He argued that humanity took a wrong turn, thousands of years ago, when it came to rely on crops like wheat and rice for basic sustenance. These “annual” crops need replanting each year, “which means that if you’re going to get your seed to germinate, you’ve got to destroy the vegetation at the surface,” clearing away anything that might compete with the fragile seedlings, Jackson said.
As farmers use tillage tools or herbicides to get rid of competing vegetation, they inevitably wipe away habitat for birds and insects. Bare soil washes away and pollutes streams and rivers. Tilling the soil releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Every little bit of effort helps.
Also, Kerna is a perennial plant which means it won’t need to be replanted each season. A nifty fact:
“Its root systems are insane,” she said. “That’s why it’s such a star. It’s like, 10 feet deep compared to 2 feet deep.”
While it won’t be showing up in supermarkets too quickly - consider the NPR article above mentioned General Mills making a cereal out of it, but that was back in 2019 and I have yet to see such a cereal appear - the parable of the soybean shows us all is not lost because the product has not yet been commercialized:
Boosters say Kernza’s slow start doesn’t mean it’s doomed. Take soybeans. “It took 80 years from concept to really taking a strong hold in the marketplace,” said Alexandra Diemer…
The best time to start working on this was yesterday. The next best time is today. Glad someone is working on it!