kernza

A Promising Wondergrain

growing the local market

A perennial, meaning it grows back year after year, Kernza is also known as a “dual purpose,” crop; you can harvest grain from it for human consumption—it can be used for brewing beer, baking and in dishes like grain salads—and you can harvest a highly palatable forage from it for animals. With its deep root system, Kernza also has a number of environmental benefits, including carbon sequestration, preventing soil erosion and improving water quality, giving it the potential to mitigate climate change. For these reasons some refer to Kernza as a “wonder crop,” but Shoenberger acknowledges that it comes with its own set of challenges, including a lack of a viable market for the grain in Wisconsin. “There are structural barriers that can make adoption difficult for the growers specifically,” Shoenberger says. “Farmers might feel like, ‘If I plant this instead of 20 acres of wheat or 20 acres of corn, I might have profit reduction.’” But Shoenberger believes knowledge is power. “A huge part of being able to grow a local Kernza market in Wisconsin is having consumer demand and there can’t be consumer demand if people don’t know about it.” Despite the barriers, Shoenberger is hopeful and believes the Kernza movement will continue to grow in Wisconsin because of its environmental benefits and the grain’s delicious, nutty flavor. “There is so much promise,” she says.

Erica Shoenberger first learned about Kernza®, a type of wheatgrass, several years ago when she was working at a permaculture farm in Florida and sat in on a lunchtime seminar with Lee DeHaan, a lead grower of Kernza at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. “I was like ‘Oh my gosh, that is the coolest thing ever,’” Shoenberger says. “I had never heard of perennial grains before.”

Inspired to learn more, Shoenberger began researching graduate programs and reached out to Valentin Picasso, a professor in the University of Wisconsin–

Madison’s Department of Agronomy. “He wasn’t used to people asking about Kernza,” Shoenberger says. Fast-forward a few years and Shoenberger has a master’s degree in agroecology from UW–Madison and is now working on a PhD studying Kernza and nutrient management.

Because of its perennial nature, Kernza can be an appealing crop for growers. (Kernza’s official website boasts, “Tastes great, less tilling.”) “Farmers can plant it once—the ideal planting time is in the fall—then they can harvest in the spring for a forage crop or let their cows or other animals graze the field, and then by August there is a full grain crop from the grass,” Shoenberger says. “You don’t have to do any more planting or anything and then [after harvesting the grain] there is low-quality forage which ends up being more like straw that farmers can harvest in October or November before it goes dormant for the winter and then the same cycle repeats again next year.”

Kernza’s deep root system—up to 10 to 12 feet deep—can store carbon, strengthen