Environmental Ethics Seminar - Tara Conway, The Land Institute

Perennial grain agriculture & an ethic of creative repair

Perennial grains offer reparative potential for the 70% of cropland currently under annual grain production, but new crops and cropping systems—by themselves—do not guarantee more socially sustainable agri-food systems. This seminar will discuss how The Land Institute is working to responsibly navigate the ethics of research, innovation, and collaboration in perennial grain development to enable a future that is not only perennial, but also deeply rooted in thriving, dignified human communities. How can an ethic of creative repair help us tackle thorny questions like plant intellectual property, cultural plant knowledge, and novel biotechnologies like gene and genome editing?