Wes Jackson

Jackson's Becoming Native to This Place, published in 1994, challenges readers to develop a relationship with their ecosystems and further develops the idea of Natural Systems Agriculture. He was a 1990 Pew Conservation Scholar and in 1992 became a MacArthur Fellow. In 2000, he received the Right Livelihood Award "for his single-minded commitment to developing an agriculture that is both highly productive and truly ecologically sustainable." His work is often referred to by author Wendell Berry, with whom Jackson has shared a longtime friendship and correspondence.

The Land Institute has explored alternatives in appropriate technology, environmental ethics, and education, but a research program in sustainable agriculture eventually became central to its work. In 1978, Jackson proposed the development of a perennial polyculture. He sought to have fields planted in polycultures, more than one variety of plant in a field, like diverse plants grow together in nature.

This book expanded on ideas presented in a 1978 article, "Towards a Sustainable Agriculture," about looking to natural ecosystems, such as the prairie, to help solve the problem of soil erosion. He collaborated with author Wendell Berry on "Meeting the Expectations of the Land," in response to a Council on Agricultural Science and Technology report on agrochemicals.

Jackson then chose to leave academia, returning to his native Kansas, where he founded a non-profit organization, The Land Institute, in 1976. The Land Institute is working to develop perennial grains, pulses, and oilseed-bearing plants to be grown in ecologically intensified, diverse crop mixtures under its Natural Systems Agriculture program. In tandem with these sustainable agriculture efforts, the Ecosphere Studies program seeks to change the way people think about the world and their place in it, through educational and cultural projects with a perennial perspective. Jackson stepped down from the presidency of The Land Institute in 2016, but still works in the Ecosphere Studies program.

Wes Jackson is the author of several books and is recognized as a leader in the international sustainable agriculture movement. In 1971, Wes Jackson's first efforts to address growing environmental concerns, react to social concerns growing from the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War, and answer student requests for more relevant materials, resulted in the environmental reader, "Man and the Environment". After leaving academia and establishing the Land Institute, Jackson published New Roots for Agriculture, partially in reaction to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office on soil erosion.

Wes Jackson (born 1936) co-founded the Land Institute with Dana Jackson. He is also a member of the World Future Council.