Wes Jackson

Wes Jackson is a plant geneticist, president of the Land Institute, and one of the godfathers — along with farmer and author Wendell Berry — of the sustainable-agriculture movement. He believes the loss of topsoil is the single greatest threat to our food supply and to the continued existence of civilization. Jackson’s life’s work is based on a question: Is it possible to avoid erosion by mimicking nature instead of imposing flawed human design on it? His latest book is Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture. In 2000 Jackson received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “alternative Nobel prize.”

— From October 2010