Wes Jackson, the president of the Land Institute in Salinas, Kansas, has become an influential voice in arguing for an agriculture that is more conservative of land and water resources. Born in 1936 on a farm in Topeka, Kansas, Jackson was subsequently trained as a biologist and botanist at Kansas Wesleyan and the University of Kansas, respectively. He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for his work in genetics by North Carolina State University in 1967. After completing his education, Jackson established an Environmental Studies program at California State University in Sacramento, where he served as a professor until 1976. In that year, he resigned from his professorship to establish the… Land Institute, where he has since applied his scientific training to the breeding of a perennial wheat and to developing sustainable agricultural techniques. Through his writing, Jackson has articulated a vision of agriculture that is not only environmentally sound, but also provides a basis for the reinvigoration of rural communities.
Wendell Berry The prolific poet, novelist, and essayist Wendell Berry is a fifth-generation native of north central Kentucky. Berry taught at Stanford University; traveled to Italy and France on a Guggenheim Fellowship; and taught at New York University and the University of Kentucky, Lexington, before moving to Henry County. Berry owns and operates Lanes Landing Farm, a small, hilly piece of property on the Kentucky River. He embraced full-time farming as a career, using horses and organic methods to tend the land. Harmony with nature in general, and the farming tradition in particular, is a central theme of Berry's diverse work. As a poet, Berry gained popularity within the literary… community. Collected Poems, 1957-1982, was particularly well-received. Novels and short stories set in Port William, a fictional town paralleling his real-life home town of Port Royal further established his literary reputation. The Memory of Old Jack, Berry's third novel, received Chicago's Friends of American Writers Award for 1975. Berry reached his broadest audience and attained his greatest popular acclaim through his essays. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture is a springboard for contemporary environmental concerns. In his life as well as his art, Berry has advocated a responsible, contextual relationship with individuals in a local, agrarian economy.