The University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and School of Nursing are developing a new public health informatics program for Native American students in partnership with local tribal nations.

As part of the program beginning in fall 2022, Public Health Administration and Policy students will also connect with Native American public health experts in the field, according to public health professor Sripriya Rajamani. The program is funded by a $1.5 million grant to the Training in Informatics for Underrepresented Minorities in Public Health (TRIUMPH) in September 2021.

“Through the TRIUMPH consortium, relationships between institutions [such as the University] and tribal nations are being built up again,” said Stacy Hammer, a graduate student in the School of Public Health who is interested in enrolling in the program this fall.

Health informatics is the data collected about the health of a population, which has been used during the pandemic to analyze case loads and immunization rates in geographic and cultural communities.

With the TRIUMPH grant, University faculty will train Native American students, who are often underrepresented in these professions, to work in health informatics so they can make effective decisions that fit the needs of the population they are serving, health policy professor Rebecca Wurtz said. This work could be used to support the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), which has been working through COVID-19 data throughout the pandemic, according to TRIUMPH manager Yasmin Odowa.

“We are finding ways to talk about data as a tool to achieve equity,” Wurtz said.

Health data from Black people, Indigenous people and people of color has historically been inaccurate and collected without consulting tribal nations, according to Hammer. This data, which measures things like the occurrence of mental health conditions and chronic diseases, is used to allocate medical supplies and resources.

“Historically, federal agencies have used their own units of measurement and western processes of data collection to gather data on Indigenous population,” Hammer said.

Hammer said she and many of her friends feel the University is making more progress in its relationships with tribal nations than other schools and institutions.

“Minnesota is ahead in building relationships with tribal nations and bridging gaps that have been there for years,” Hammer said.

The University of Minnesota Plant Protein Innovation Center (PPIC) opened applications Feb. 10 for intern positions to assist with ongoing research projects related to plant protein and sustainability. The intern positions are open to students of all academic majors.

Most students who work as interns in the center have a background in food science and are in the College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Sciences (CFANS). But in recent years, students from the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) have also become undergraduate researchers in the lab, providing students with career experience outside of their academic college.

The PPIC was created in November 2018 as a collaborative research organization to bridge the gap between the food industry and academia in plant protein research. Many companies are seeking information on the nutritional and physiological characteristics of plants for food product development.

The program received more public attention within the past year and has formed new partnerships with General Mills and Cargill to accelerate funding of projects, according to center director Pam Ismail.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to interact with a big team on different academic levels,” Ismail said. “Food science can be applied to many other common fields of science.”

Fourth-year student Maddi Johnson is currently helping research the structure of plant proteins to determine if they can function as an ingredient in food products. Although Johnson is a bioproducts and biosystems engineering (BBE) major through CSE, she has been involved in the protein center since May 2021 to research sustainability.

“In engineering, it’s more generalizations and estimates, but I have been able to consider multiple factors and small details when seeing the food science side,” Johnson said.

Plant proteins are a key ingredient in plant-based meat replacements, which have increased in the market recently. These alternatives can mimic the flavors and textures of meat while being more sustainable and requiring less land to produce, Johnson said.

Companies like Impossible are looking to maximize the environmental benefits of meat replacements and find alternatives to common proteins while maintaining nutritional and functional aspects, Johnson said.

“Beef in particular is inefficient for energy, land and water use,” Johnson said. “Looking at plant proteins is relevant as our population grows and we need more land.”

Increasing food sustainability by using plant protein also attracted second-year BBE student Madison Stoltzman to the center.

“I was hesitant to apply because I wasn’t in CFANS and didn’t have a food science background,” Stoltzman said. “They offered me the position because of my interest in plant protein, which was most compelling to them.”

Stoltzman has assisted two masters students on two research projects studying pea proteins in beverages. In addition to researching sustainable food ingredients, this research also allowed Stoltzman to learn laboratory skills she hadn’t gained due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.

“This has allowed me to take in as much knowledge as possible and follow my natural curiosity to identify if research development is a possibility in the future for me,” Stoltzman said.

Students can also build up their networks outside of CSE and connect with other industry members to advance potential job positions, according to Johnson.

“My advice is to look for opportunities outside of your major because there is a lot going on at the University that is closely related to what you want to do,” Johnson said.

As contract negotiations approach in April for unionized custodial and waste management workers, some employees are calling for increased accountability and sustainable practices in waste and facilities management at the University of Minnesota.

Workers say they want more involvement in the development of sustainability plans at the University among other demands according to Teamsters Local 320 representative Jackson Kerr.

Custodial and waste management staff said they want to be involved in the rewriting of the University’s Climate Action Plans (CAP), which outlines strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and implement sustainable practices such as developing recycling and waste management.

As part of the CAP, the University began a composting program on campus three years ago. Since then, the program has been introduced on a building by building basis, according to Linda Weingarten, Director of Central Services in Facilities Management.

According to Christine O’Connor, an administrative senior building and grounds worker, staff were trained with a 15-minute video and given a pair of tongs to sort through trash. The tongs are used to pick out cans or incorrectly placed trash that ends up in the compost. When trash needs to be sorted with tongs it increases the time needed to process waste.

O’Connor has worked as a janitor for the University for 23 years and said she thinks the training of custodial and waste management staff across the University has been inconsistent, leading sustainability efforts, like composting, to cause more harm than good.

“Some people were shown what can or can’t go in the compost, but others rely on the pictures,” O’Connor said. “It’s difficult when waste is different in buildings, such as food vendors like Panda Express and Starbucks, which have different composting practices.”

Weingarten said she thought training has been consistent from the University, but the environmental inefficiencies stem from students, faculty and staff disposing of waste improperly.

“We know our staff feel frustrated by some of the general population who do not properly place their waste into the appropriate bins or put everything into the trash,” Weingarten said.

In an effort to keep recycling and organics free from contamination, staff spend extra time separating misplaced trash, according to Weingarten.

The waste management center has received turf, athletic tape, cleats and full plastic bottles of water in the trash from athletics buildings, ReUse Center worker Tyler Miller said. The ReUse Center collects office furniture, supplies and equipment from around campus and makes them available to University departments or individuals for purchase.

“Once [University administrators] deal with this on a daily basis, they will realize how unreachable some of the zero waste goals they created are without the resources and staffing available,” Miller said.

Working alone to complete labor-intensive tasks with limited resources and time has also resulted in environmental unsustainability, according to delivery service driver Joe VanGuilder.

When VanGuilder started working at the University eight years ago, he was in charge only of picking up recycling. Now, VanGuilder picks up and delivers recycling, biohazard and other miscellaneous materials as part of his responsibilities.

“I spend more of my day rearranging my truck to get as many stops in as possible than actually doing my job,” VanGuilder said.

Garbage truck workers also often run two to three routes to pick up all forms of waste due to limited numbers of drivers, according to VanGuilder.

“If I go to my first stop and I have a lot of chairs to pick up, I might as well go back to the ReUse Center to drop them off to avoid breaking or moving them, which defeats the purpose of one truck picking up everything,” VanGuilder said.

Many frontline workers said they are advocates for net-zero carbon emissions and want to advance sustainable practices, but feel the University has not supported these efforts internally.

“The University has to show they are committed to sustainability,” VanGuilder said. “Without us, they can’t reach those goals and we should be a part of the conversation.”

The University of Minnesota’s Office for Equity and Diversity (OED) has reported about a 1,000% increase in demand for their services and programs over the past year. 

Increasing numbers of academic departments and faculty members have requested to participate in equity and diversity programs offered through the University. OED is working to increase their offerings as more people begin to engage in conversations about race, according to Paul Ang, associate director of Racial and Social Justice Education at the University.

Associate Director of Racial and Social Justice Education Kelly Collins said the increase was because more faculty, staff and students want to discuss racial justice. Collins said the increase is tied to the murder of George Floyd and police killings of Amir Locke and Daunte Wright.

“When we speak specifically about police abolition and responding to the fight for racial justice, we create a lot of space in our programs to explore that,” Collins said. 

One workshop that University students, staff and faculty can take offers discussions about implicit bias and microaggressions, while another looks at how personal actions play into equity and diversity.

The Equity Certificate Hosted Online (ECHO) program is another workshop that increased in demand over the past year. A waitlist has formed, consisting of people looking to participate in the two-hour workshop.

With the increase in requests for broader diversity education, other programs have recently been developed. Formed in 2019, the Gopher Equity Project is a required online learning module for first-year and transfer students that walks through concepts and situations of equity, power and privilege. 

The module was tested by 520 students, the majority of whom were students of color. Over 90% of these students said the training was a beneficial exposure to diversity and social justice topics, according to Associate Vice Provost LeeAnn Melin. 

In fall 2020, 3,000 students who completed the Gopher Equity project said they wanted to receive more discussion-based resources beyond online learning tools. 

“The challenge right now is campus engagement during the pandemic,” Melin said. “We feel that this is just a start and we are looking to provide additional programs and discussion groups.” 

Although the project developed prior to the murder of George Floyd, Melin said this event increased the University’s urgency to provide educational materials. 

“We need to find opportunities to weave DEI into the student experience and not so much as a separate requirement so that students have an equal foundation and understanding,” Melin said.  

Although OED programs do not offer students the opportunity to earn credit, curriculum development has expanded to include more classes that focus on social justice and race.

Last year, the Council on Liberal Education and the Faculty Senate passed a new academic theme on Race, Power and Justice that all students now need to fulfill to graduate from the University. 

“We wanted to improve it to include racial justice and systemic inequality because race needed to be part of the new requirement,” said Kathryn Pearson, chair of the council on liberal education.

Since the requirement began this past fall, the council has received new proposals for courses from faculty that discuss racial injustice, systemic racism and economic inequality.

“The faculty of color were key to providing feedback about the proposal for the new theme,” Pearson said. “They felt it was important that all undergrads know how social, political and economic inequalities have been constructed.”

Pearson said refinement of curriculum will continue for years to come. 

“We want to create opportunities to weave [diversity and race information] into the student experience so that it will be more effective, meaningful and purposeful for students on campus,” Melin said.

The University of Minnesota Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) is improving the GopherTrip app, following student concerns of buses running off-schedule and inaccuracy on the app.

Since 2017, the GopherTrip app has displayed information for student users about campus bus arrival times, locations and capacities. Recently, the app has displayed incorrect schedules or arrival times, making it difficult for students commuting around campus, according to Jacqueline Bass, a spokesperson from PTS.

Now, PTS is meeting with software developers to provide up-to-date information and schedules to ensure bus routes and arrival times are displaying correctly. With the recent hiring of more drivers and warmer weather, the buses should begin to meet expected arrival times, according to Lonetta Hanson, administrative services assistant director and chief of staff of PTS.

“I’ve stopped using the app because sometimes it will take 20 or more minutes for a bus and other times, there will be two that arrive back to back,” University second-year student Hope Werstler said.

In the past month, PTS also hired more drivers to increase the number of buses available. The University has struggled to retain drivers throughout the past few years, Hanson said.

“I understand that it can be off by a minute or two from the schedule because of traffic, but when they show a bus coming up in the app but it doesn’t show up in time it is frustrating,” recent University alum João Esteves said.

The GopherTrip application displays five different routes that cover all three University campuses. Using this app can help students determine when to leave for classes, according to Hanson.

Buses are tracked using a GPS-based system activated by drivers when they begin their route. This information is viewed by PTS who can monitor bus routes and timing, Hanson said.

“Sometimes the GPS unit is disconnected or drivers don’t turn it on, but dispatchers and supervisors can catch this,” Hanson said. “If we see only four buses on the app showing up but there are eight running, we communicate with drivers to fix the issue.”

Although the driver shortage has made it difficult for PTS to have a full fleet of buses available on routes, other factors such as delays when refreshing the app, traffic changes and weather can cause arrival time estimations to be inaccurate, Hanson said.

“So far this semester, I’ve noticed that the buses [specifically the campus connector] are very inconsistent,” Werstler said.

The complexity of the University’s various academic, weekday and weekend bus schedules have been a challenge for app programming developers because it is difficult to add these different schedules to the software system, Hanson said.

Not only does the schedule change during academic breaks, but the span of time between bus arrivals can vary from 5 to 20 minutes. Weekend schedules usually begin at 9:30 a.m. and end at 2 a.m., while they begin at 7:00 a.m. on weekdays.

“The routes themselves are great, especially the 121 and 122 going basically the same route but different directions, and the 122 would even run until 1 or 2 a.m.,” Esteves said.

The University of Minnesota’s Black Law Student Association (BLSA) wrote an open letter Feb 4. demanding the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) fire the decision makers involved in approving the no-knock warrant that led to Amir Locke’s death.

The open letter also demands the MPD release details of the warrant. Members of the group have called for wider police reform and a response from the University. MPD officer Mark Hanneman killed Locke, who had been sleeping on a couch with a gun in the morning of Feb. 2. Hanneman shot Locke within about nine seconds of entering the apartment while carrying out a no-knock search warrant that Locke was not named on, according to Minneapolis officials on Feb. 10.

Warrant documents were released Feb. 10, revealing that knock and no-knock warrants were received for three apartments at Bolero Flats in downtown Minneapolis. The officers carried out the warrants in search of a suspect in a St. Paul homicide case, who was arrested Feb. 7.

This incident follows the police killings of George Floyd in 2020, Daunte Wright in 2021 and Philando Castile in 2016. There have been protests around the city and activists have called for the abolition of no-knock warrants and the resignation of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

BLSA leaders said they are calling upon the University’s Law School to use their power as one of the highest ranking law schools in Minnesota to take a stance on police brutality.

“The silence of the law school as an academic institution was deafening in response to Daunte Wright,” BLSA President Justice Shannon said. “When I realized that the law school [as an academic institution] was not going to comment on murders in their own backyard, I felt the need to speak up.”

The student group is about 50 years old and has about 25 members.

Some BLSA members said their shared experiences as law students and as people of color enable them to take collective action.

“We only know about a certain number of instances of murders or police brutality in the time we’ve been here, but there is much more undocumented,” BLSA member Akeem Anderson said. “These people who will become martyrs for state-sponsored violence are episodes of a larger issue.”

Police reformation is not an anti-police mechanism but about implementing systemic change and recognizing the racism historically rooted in policing, according to Shannon.

“American policing comes from South Carolina in the 1790s where groups of white men would police slaves and make sure there were no slave rebellions,” Shannon said.

BLSA members said they want the University and general law enforcement to reevaluate the function of police in cities and acknowledge the origins of American policing.

Shannon said every time there is an act of police brutality, regardless of severity, conversations around police reform should happen in public and on the ballot.

“I think every time there is an act of police brutality in Minneapolis or Minnesota, whether it’s to the Black community, a murder or physical abuse or assault, the discussion of police reform needs to be put back on the public’s mind and on the ballot,” Shannon said.

BLSA members said the University needs to provide additional emotional support and a more caring environment for University students impacted by this tragedy, including potentially canceling or postponing classes.

“It appears that these issues in Black and minority communities have not been on the forefront of the University to discuss,” BLSA member and University student Elizabeth Bovell said.

Although the Law School teaches critical race theory, Shannon said the course should be required for all students. Shannon also said the law school should do more to support police reform.

“The law school has the power and needs to take public stances to demand police reform because it will not come from the judiciary branch, but the legislative branch,” Shannon said.

Overall, BLSA said they do not want to focus on momentary acts of resistance, but instead implement structural changes to the ways people think and organize around police violence, while also supporting and taking care of mental health.

“We live in such a diverse area in Minneapolis and the school could make a better effort to show advocacy, whether it’s through the people who teach here, visitors or the deans that are hired,” Bovell said.

The University of Minnesota’s M Health Fairview system is now offering two COVID-19 antiviral treatments that can prevent complications and hospitalization from the virus to high risk individuals as of Feb. 3.

The oral medications, Molnupiravir and Paxlovid, were first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at the end of December to help treat COVID-19 and decrease the severity of the virus. Although supply of the treatments were initially limited, availability has increased recently, allowing most high-risk individuals who contract COVID-19 to request a prescription.

These antiviral medications are used to treat both vaccinated and unvaccinated patients who have already contracted COVID-19. Molnupiravir and Paxlovid are administered orally through a pill to prevent the virus from replicating in the body, which reduces the severity of COVID-19 symptoms, according to Dr. Ryan Langlois, a professor in the department of microbiology and immunology.

“The existence of antivirals should never be a motivation to skip the vaccine,” Langlois said. “They have the ability to help people who have genetic diseases or are immunocompromised.”

People at high risk of contracting or being hospitalized from COVID-19 tend to be people older in age, or with a pre-existing health condition or a weakened immune system.

“We started giving these out a month ago to our first patients, so far we have given out 225 orders for Paxlovid and 150 prescriptions for Molnupiravir,” said Bryan Jarabek, Chief Medical Informatics Officer for M Health Fairview.

In order for these antiviral treatments to be effective in preventing hospitalizations, the drugs must be administered as quickly as possible after symptoms appear, according to Dr. Mahsa Abassi, a professor in the University’s Medical School.

Paxlovid has shown an approximately 90% decrease in hospitalization in high-risk patients, if treatment is started within the first five days of symptoms. Molnupiravir shows a 30% reduction in hospitalization. Paxlovid is currently being used in the highest risk patients, while Molnupiravir is being used in patients at less of a risk of being hospitalized from COVID-19, Jarabek said.

“Anybody who is infected with COVID-19 or has high risk factors [for] getting severe disease should be a target for widely available antiviral drugs,” Langlois said.

Jarabek said he has been encouraging people to take these antiviral treatments whenever possible. Some people in the high-risk category may not understand how sick they may become when they first contract the virus, he said.

“I see quite a few high risk people tell me they don’t need pills and figure they will be okay,” Jarabek said. “They only have those first five days to make a decision, and after that it doesn’t work.”

As supply of the treatments continue to increase, antiviral medications could become available via prescriptions for all people with COVID-19. In the meantime, healthcare experts are trying to educate the entire healthcare and pharmacy system on how to distribute the antivirals, Jarabek said.

The University of Minnesota’s Vegetable Working Group is collaborating with local immigrant farmers to breed and grow vegetables commonly found in the cuisines and cultures of African immigrants.

Due to climate and growing conditions in Minnesota, many types of produce are not available in grocery stores around the area. After seeing this gap impact immigrants in local communities, Rex Bernardo, director of the University’s Plant Breeding Center, created the group of graduate students and postdoctoral students in April 2021.

Together with local farmers, the group is growing and breeding leafy green crops, such as spider plants and jute mallows, to be more suitable for Minnesota’s climate. Over the past two weeks, the group has started to hold conversations with immigrant farmers who want to grow these crops sustainably, according to Bernardo.

“It’s an idea I had in the back of my mind for a while,” Bernardo said. “I read an article on NPR about how immigrant communities in the Twin Cities have a lack of access to vegetables that are important to their local cuisines to their families. The article said that the African vegetables produced by Hmong growers would be sold out early in the morning on a Saturday morning at the different farmers markets.”

Most of the farmers have been familiar with these crops their entire life. The group is now working to understand the growing processes, according to University doctoral student and Vegetable Working Group member Mary Jane Espina.

Moses Momanyi, a Kenyan immigrant farmer of 15 years based in Minnesota, is working with the group and sharing his land with about 13 other immigrant farmers.

Growing vegetables not often found in Minnesota grocery stores has increased business for Momanyi and other immigrant farmers. They often sell these crops at farmers markets or to wholesale retailers, he said.

“I’m from China, and sometimes I go into the Asian store to look for veggies that are unique to our race and I wish there were more crops that can grow here,” said postdoctoral student and Vegetable Working Group member Yinjie Qiu.

The group planted several leafy green crops on the St. Paul campus last summer and are planning to grow in locations closer to farmers this summer, doctoral student and group member Michael Burns said.

The group is also beginning to breed crops and seeds so they can be produced in a shorter amount of time, according to doctoral student and group member Leisl Bower-Jernigan. Since the limited growing season in Minnesota doesn’t allow many crops to survive, the group is also focused on breeding leafy vegetables for adaptivity to winter weather conditions.

“When we think of plant breeding, we think of crop improvement, but most of the crops we are dealing with are tropical crops,” Espina said. “The traits that we are trying to improve or look at are mostly related to adaptation in Minnesota.”

According to Burns, involving immigrant farmers in these conversations encourages their input on what traits they would like to see bred into the crops and on growing techniques.

“Working with the Vegetable Working Group to identify the traits we want in things such as fruit and foliage, techniques of seeding and pinning down days of maturity are important for us to grow successfully,” Momanyi said.

Many farmer’s expressed concern over genetically modified organisms, where plants are artificially modified in a laboratory rather than with traditional cross breeding. To address this, the group is using a plant breeding technique called traditional hybridization. In this, two plants are bred, seeds are harvested, grown and then evaluated to find the best resulting plant.

Avoiding making genetic modifications to plants that have cultural significance preserves the stable relationship between researchers and immigrants, Momanyi said.

“If the University acknowledges how we identify ourselves and with our food, we feel honored that way,” Momanyi said.

Amid the pandemic, the University of Minnesota Genomics Center (UMGC) and the Metro wastewater treatment plant in St. Paul have been working together to test wastewater for COVID-19 to predict trends for the Twin Cities area.

Monitoring the presence of COVID-19 in wastewater allows public health experts to know what geographic locations will have a high number of cases, without testing mass groups of people. Although there are still new cases emerging, the data predicted a decline in omicron cases by the week of Feb. 6 according to Kat Dodge, a spokesperson from the Medical School.

The omicron variant was first observed in the wastewater in mid-December. During the peak of omicron cases in early January, 1,047 million copies of COVID-19 gene fragments came into the plant each day. By the end of January, this number decreased to 133 million gene fragments a day, according to Dr. Steve Balogh, a research scientist in the Metropolitan Council’s Environmental Services division.

While this number has decreased, the concentration of COVID-19 in wastewater is still considered high. The lowest recorded concentration from the pandemic was 6.9 million copies of gene fragments in June 2021.

“People are still getting sick, and it’s not over, there are still hospitalizations,” Balogh said. “In our viral load, it’s still very high, even though it’s about 90% lower than it was 4 weeks ago.”

Researchers, like Balogh, test wastewater at the plant in St. Paul, which serves the majority of the Twin Cities area. The samples are taken from untreated wastewater from toilets, shower drains, factories and stores.

Wastewater sampling, unlike tracking COVID-19 through testing, allows researchers to see the prevalence of the virus in geographic communities rapidly. Wastewater testing does not rely on people getting tested or receiving results to understand how COVID-19 is spreading through an area, according to Balogh.

“Wastewater testing gives us objective data about the prevalence of the virus in the community,” Balogh said. “It’s not determined by how many people are taking a test or who is symptomatic or asymptomatic.”

To test for COVID-19, Balogh extracts RNA segments from wastewater samples. The samples taken at Balogh’s lab are then sent to the University’s Genomic Center, where they test for the concentration of viral COVID-19 fragments within 48 hours of being collected.

“Almost a year ago, we developed mutation-specific droplet digital PCR,” said Kenneth Beckman, director of the University’s Genomics Center. “It allows us to provide a measurement of specific strains, which has helped the Metropolitan Council to track the rise and fall of new COVID variants.”

Wastewater testing for COVID-19 in the Twin Cities area began in April 2020. Eventually, researchers partnered with the University Genomics Center to begin analyzing samples in July 2021. By October, Balogh developed a method for extracting RNA and sending it to the University’s Genomic Center to receive data in return, according to Beckman.

Public health experts have become interested in analyzing wastewater data, due to the COVID-19 testing data potentially being inaccurate, Balogh said.

“My goal is to try to provide useful information to the Department of Health, as they are trying to manage the pandemic in our communities,” Balogh said. “They are looking at the data and valuing it, there is an enormous amount of information in wastewater and it’s a great measure of the health of the people.”

University of Minnesota faculty are working to develop and research new crops that are more profitable and adaptable for farmers around the Midwest as part of the Forever Green Initiative.

The initiative aims to develop “continuous living cover agriculture,” which are crops that can provide for society and occupy land for the majority of the year. Researchers currently study 16 different crops, including a wheat alternative called Kernza, that are able to be farmed in Minnesota during the hard winter months, according to initiative coordinator and agronomy professor Dr. Nicholas Jordan.

By planting and growing winter season crops in rotation with other crops, like soy and corn, the roots and soil remain nourished, which allows other plants to grow successfully, food science initiative expert Dr. Pam Ismail said.

“Dominant agriculture of the Midwest involves the summer row crops which is great,” Jordan said. “However, we are growing crops that only grow for four months of the year, which means that there isn’t a living plant on that farmland for the other eight months of the year.”

After being developed in the University’s crop breeding program and released in 2019, many farmers around the Midwest and Minnesota currently grow the Kernza grain as part of the Kernza Coordinated Agricultural Program (CAP).

When crops are not grown year-round, many resources used to support plant growth, such as water, nutrients, solar energy and land are not utilized. This can result in water pollution, vulnerability to unstable weather conditions and a lack in available water supply, according to Jordan.

To mitigate these challenges, the crops developed in the program are healthy for the larger ecosystem, plant breeding initiative expert Dr. Jake Jungers said. These crops are designed to prevent excess amounts of nitrogen from being captured in the soil and eventually contaminating groundwater. They also allow carbon from the atmosphere to be stored to protect agricultural ecosystems.

Kernza specifically has deep and dense roots that can reach nitrogen located deep in the soil. This also decreases the amount of fertilizer farmers need to purchase and use.

“The resilience of Kernza helps as farmers have been stressed in recent years about annual crops because of climate change and more extreme weather events such as heavy rainfalls,” Jungers said. “Having a crop already in the field is a sense of relief.”

In addition to being environmentally friendly and economically feasible, growing winter-season crops helps maintain the relationship between growers, suppliers and consumers, according to Jordan.

“Any new crop will require us to know how production works for farmers, harvesting, storage, processing and ultimately making them into products that people want to buy,” Jordan said.

Despite launching more than 30 years ago, the University’s Forever Green Initiative will continue to research and modify crops to reach maximum success for the end consumer, Jordan said.