Public lecture with Professor Lennart Olsson, Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS).
There is an urgent need for agriculture to drastically reduce its negative environmental impacts on land and oceans, while at the same time responding to increasing demand and adapting to a changing climate. For this to be possible, radical change in how we grow our major staple crops is essential. A shift from annual monocultures to perennial polycultures would dramatically change the most environmentally destructive activity humanity ever invented – agriculture. But is it possible?
After four decades of scientific interest and breeding, perennial grains have recently started to attract interest from farmers and industry,
not least the newly domesticated crop Intermediate Wheatgrass (also known as “Kernza”) and perennial rice. While important steps forward have been taken in terms of plant breeding, many challenges and questions remain – scientific as well as economic, political, and social.
This video was filmed in connection to a public lecture during The "Future week"/Framtidsveckan at Lund University, and provides an opportunity to learn about the most radical rethinking of agriculture since the Neolithic Revolution.
