Groundswell is a two-day regenerative agriculture festival that provides a forum for farmers, growers and anyone interested in agroecological systems to learn about producing food and fibre while regenerating the soil and land.
Aubrey Streit Krug is a writer, teacher, and researcher who studies human-plant relationships and the connection between cultural and agricultural change. She is director of the Perennial Cultures Lab at The Land Institute.From buffalo prairies to urban orchards, an introduction to a diverse movement redefining how we grow, eat, and live with the land. She will be speaking about her latest book Living Roots: The Promise of Perennial Foods.
Just four annual crops鈥攃orn, wheat, rice, and soybeans鈥攁ccount for 75% of the calories consumed by people. We are missing out on a tremendous bounty of perennial foods鈥攆oods that can not only enrich our diets but help heal the land and combat climate change. By investing energy in robust root systems rather than just annual growth, perennial food plants endure year after year, pointing the way to a more resilient future.
In Living Roots, a passionate group of experts from wide-ranging backgrounds and lived experience come together to explore the promise of perennial foods. In this book, you鈥檒l hear from Indigenous scientists and community leaders who are working to restore buffalo prairies and traditions of berry gathering. You鈥檒l also hear from urban visionaries planting food forests; farmers planting fruit and nut trees between their crops and hedgerows at the edges of their fields; ranchers stewarding healthier grasslands by grazing livestock in patterns that mimic the behavior of native herbivores; and scientists and farmers who are developing perennial grains, from sorghum to silphium.
These efforts are wildly diverse, much like a healthy forest or prairie. We will need each of them, and the power of perennials, to protect the planet we all share. Living Roots is a vital introduction to this burgeoning movement and an invaluable resource for sustainable farming advocates and everyone who cares about the future of food.