University Daily Kansan / Monday, October 8, 1990
5
Land Institute tries to find alternative farming techniques
By Mike Brassfield
Kansan staff writer
SALINA — Wes Jackson is sowing the seeds of revolution — slowly.
Jackson is the founder of the Land Institute, a privately financed experimental farm near Salina. The research at the 275-acre institute is aimed at developing alternatives to conventional agriculture.
Jackson considers conventional farming inherently destructive and wasteful. Conventional farming techniques rely on the use of large amounts of fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides, he said. These chemicals leak through the soil and pollute the groundwater.
Farmers must till the soil each year to plant their crops, he said. This causes soil erosion as valuable nutrients are washed down rivers and into the sea.
"Soil is a non-renewable resource," Jackson said. "What has destroyed agricultural regions historically and ecologically towards the ocean."
Using the natural, Kansas prairie as a model, the 14 staff members and 10 student interns at the institute are trained to alternate methods of agriculture.
Peter Kulakow, research assistant at the institute, explained that annual crops, such as corn and wheat, must be replanted every year.
Jackson said that conventional wisdom was against the institute's idea. Skeptics say that any attempt to
produce a perennial grain crop that yields a significant amount of food is doomed to failure.
Jackson said he did not let that stop him.
"This is an exploration," he said. "We don't know ourselves if it's going to work, but it's something we keep chinning away at."
"We are questioning the fundamental roots of European-style agriculture here," he said.
The research at the institute is designed to produce results during the long term. Jackson said he hoped to develop a marketable alternative crop in 25 to 50 years. He spoke of the problem and hoped to the world in the next 100 years.
Jackson said that some of the institute's candidates for perennial crops included Eastern gammagrass and leymus, which might be used to feed humans so that the Ill must survive, which could be a poultry or cattle feed.
Jackson said he did not expect perennial grain crops to completely replace such staples as wheat and alfalfa especially in prime, flat farming areas.
He said he wanted to see his new crops eventually take root in the 350 million acres of U.S. farmland that is on hillsides and prone to erosion.
Tom Mulhern, development director of the institute, said staff members had experimented with making lawnmats in Illinois and Illinois bundleflower.
"The food here is edible, but you'd have to be pretty hungry to eat it," he said.
Monday
3:30 p.m. — Interview preparation workshop at the University Placement Center, room 149 in the Burge Union.
3:30 p.m. — Holiday travel alternatives workshop for foreign students at the University Placement Center, room 149 in the Burge Union.
6:30 p.m. — Hispanic American Leadership Organization meeting at the Walnut Room in the Kansas Union.
6:30 p.m. - KU Tae Kwon Do Club work at room 207 in Robinson Center
6:30 p.m. - Re-orientation session covering the enrollment process, advising and academic assistance for liberal arts and sciences and Applied English Center students at McColm Hall lobby.
6:30 p.m. - Overcoming Overseeing workshop at the KU Wellness Center, 138 Robinson Center
Tuesday
11 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Commuters Club luncheon at Alcove I in the Kansas Union.
1:30 p.m. — Informational meeting for study abroad in French-speaking countries at French department lounge,
"25 Wescoe Hall
12:30 p.m. - Campus Girls Scouts organizational meeting, to plan activities for the semester, at GSP first floor conference room. Bring lunch.
3-30 p.m. — Interview for success workshop at the University Placement Center room 149 in the Burge Union
6:00 p.m. — KU Students Against Hunger meeting at the Jayhawk Room in the Kansas Union
6:00 p.m. — Stress reduction class meeting at the Wellness Center, 138 Robinson Center.
3:30 p.m. - Informational meeting for study abroad programs at 124 Fraser Hall.
6:30 p.m. — Re-orientation session for liberal arts and sciences students at Oliver Hall lobby.
7:00 p.m. — Assessiveness training workshop at the Registral Room in the Kansas Union. Sponsored by KU Women's Resource Center
7:30 p.m. — Anorexia Nervosa and Related Disorders support group meeting in room 20. Watkins Memorial Health Center.
8:30 p.m. — KU Fencing Club work and instruction at room 130, Robinson Gymnasium. Also on Thursdays at 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday
**noon** — University Forum at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Eadre Ave. Professor Robert Ivanov will speak on the "Situation in the Soviet Union."
12:10 p.m. - Overcoming OVERATING workshop at the Wellness Center, 138 Robinson Center. Also at 6:30 p.m. in the Wellness Center.
7:00 p.m. — Forum with State Trea-
rer candidate sponsored by KU Democrat
and Republican clubs at Alderson
Audiumlum.
for liberal arts and sciences students, at GSP-Corbin Hall Inbhv
7:00 p.m. — KU Latter-day Saint Student Association meeting at the Daisy Hill Room in the Burge Union.
2:30 p.m. — Looking for a job workshop at the University Placement Center, room 149 in the Burge Union.
7:00 p.m. — Society for Fantasy and Science Fiction meeting at Alcove C in the Kansas Union.
8:00 p.m. — KU Democrats meeting following State Treasurer candidates forum at Alderson Auditorium.
2:30 p.m. — Writing a resume workshop at the University Placement Center, room 149 in the Burge Room
Thursday
6:30 p.m. — Re-orientation session
12:10 p.m. — Stress reduction class meeting at the Wellness Center, 138 Robinson Center
6:30 p.m. — KU Christian Science Student Organization meeting at Alcove C in the Kansas Union.
4:00 p.m. - Amnesty International letter writing session at Alcove B in the Kansas Union.
7:30 p.m. - Sociology Club meeting at 706 Fraser Hall.
6. 30 p.m. - Re-orientation meeting for liberal arts and sciences students at Ellsworth Hall lobby.
7:30 p.m. — Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas at会议 in recognition of National Coming Out Day. Guest speaker to be announced.
6:00 p.m. - KU-ACLU meeting at Alcove R in the Kansas Union.
Fridav
1:00 p.m. - Organization of Adult Alcove A of the Kansas Union Knowledge Seekers business meeting in
21. 1988. over southern Scotland.
WICHTA — The pilot and at least 147 other victims of the 1988 Lockerbie air disaster may have lived until they struck the earth after falling 31,000 feet, an internationally recognized forensic pathologist said.
Lockerbie air disaster victims may have lived until crash
The Associated Press
Escorted by a police officer, Eckert viewed the five main areas where bodies and debris fell. He also saw three areas where investigators were working.
"And there's a good possibility they were conscious," said William G. Eckert, director of the Milton Helper International Center of Forensic Sciences at Wichita State University.
Eckert has performed thousands of autopsies and consulted on hundreds of cases involving medical-legal issues.
who fell on Tunderg屯 Hill and surrounding areas in Scotland initially may have been unconscious because of a lack of oxygen at the blast altitude. But they would have regained consciousness between 15,000 and 10,000 feet and would have known what was happening to them during the final third of their 36-second or more fall, he said.
He said the 148 Lockerbie victims
Eckert, who was in England five months later for a meeting of the Association of Police Surgeons of Great Britain, was invited to tour the crash site and investigation centers by John Orr, a police investigator who met Eckert during a visit to the United States.
A woman aboard a Yugoslavian airliner that collided with a British jetliner in 1976 survived a 38,000-foot fall. Eckert said.
what happened to the Pan Am Flight 103 pilot.
Eckert's comments came in a Friday interview, a confidential memo he wrote to a Lockerbie investigator and an article he did for the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, which is the professional journal of the National Association of Medical Examiners.
World War II Laufwaffe pilots who crashed and died at the controls of their planes suffered injuries that Eckert thinks are consistent with
The issue of whether any of the 259 victims were alive and conscious before impact could be a crucial factor in determining damages for their pain and suffering. Pan Am Flight 103, a Boeing 747 dubbed "Maid of the Seas," was shot down by an American jet.
He called the 845 square mile area where bodies and debris fell "the largest major homicide crime scene in the world."
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Attention Seniors:
Don't forget to vote on October 9 and 10 for the H.O.P.E. Award.
The H.O.P.E. Award was established by the class of 1959 to honor the teacher deserving the Honors of Outstanding Progressive Educator
Progressive Educator.
Nominate your professor at:
- Strong Hall
- The Kansas Union
- By Summerfield
The H.O.P.E. Award, a recognition of Excellence