Great River Greening’s Work in Southern Minnesota

Kernza bread; photo by Brad Gordon.

Great River Greening’s Brad Gordon has worked hard this summer with Seven Mile Creek Watershed Partnership to reach out to farmers about sustainable agriculture issues.

Mankato Free Press covered our recent Kernza event (Full story here and here on The Land Online):

Excerpt:
Much of the work has been done by the Seven Mile Creek Watershed Partnership, a coalition of 25 agriculture, conservation, community, business, and government groups led by Great River Greening and Nicollet SWCD.

[Eric] Miller said the SWCD is starting to shift more attention to a couple of watersheds west of St. Peter in an effort to reduce nitrates and other farm chemicals from getting into shallow aquifers that supply much of St. Peter’s drinking water.

Meanwhile, Great River Greening is continuing to work with area farmers to promote best management practices, such as cover crops and planting Kernza — the first perennial wheat — to help reduce the amount of nitrates getting into the aquifers.

A separate MFP piece went in depth on the emerging Kernza industry (Full story here):

Excerpt:

Brad Gordon of Great River Greening, a Minnesota-based environmental nonprofit, said Kernza has roots that can reach 10 feet deep. When plants take in carbon dioxide, that CO2 goes down into the roots and is buried in the soil, helping reduce climate change.

And Kernza is efficient at cleaning water.

“It’s really good at reducing nitrates because it has deep roots and is efficient with water storage and keeps nitrates from running off or getting into tile lines,” Gordon said.

Another recent piece on our Kernza work appeared in St. Peter Herald. To read the article, click here. Kernza takes another leap locally, debuts in River Rock bread, LocAle beer (paywall)