This View of Life Forever Green: Building a cooperative innovation platform for diversification in Midwest agriculture with Nick Jordan & Whitney Clark
Sep 23, 2025
Nick Jordan, an agroecology expert at the University of Minnesota, and Whitney Clark, Executive Director of Friends of the Mississippi River, discuss the Forever Green Initiative. They explore the importance of crop diversification and continuous living cover to enhance Midwestern agriculture. The duo delve into the necessity of holistic systems for new crop development, share success stories like winter camelina, and emphasize cross-sector collaboration for environmental and economic sustainability.
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Continuous Living Cover Is Crucial
- Midwest soils need living roots much longer each year to maintain soil health and ecosystem services.
- Forever Green targets
New Crops Need Whole Systems
- Developing a new crop requires building an entire supporting system beyond breeding.
- Markets, policy, infrastructure, equipment, and farmer integration must all be created.
Prioritize Cross-Sector Cooperation
- Build sustained, cross-sector cooperation including farmers, academics, industry, finance and advocacy to scale new crops.
- Resource long-term collaboration and learning to overcome social dilemmas.