Agroecology in a world where everything seems to be getting worse.
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episode 115: The Perennial Future that Almost Was; The LSU Groundnut Project with Dr. Bill Blackmon
Apios Americana, hopniss, or the American Groundnut. Whatever you call it, the nitrogen-fixing perennial root crop has been of much interest to homesteaders, permaculturalists, and native-crop enthusiasts for decades. However, the American Groundnut was once selected by Dr. Bill Blackmon as the crop most likely to become a viable staple crop for the American diet, and breeding began on it in the 1980s at LSU. Despite showing great promise, as evidenced by the LSU variety that still exists today, the project was abandoned early on.
In this episode, we had the privilege to chat with Dr. Bill Blackmon about the work he was doing at LSU, suggestions for people interested in bringing new crops to market, and what he's been up to these 40 years since his time at LSU. Bill's fingerprint will likely forever remain on the future of the groundnut, and the opportunity to speak with him was a rare and special chance, even though this episode is one of our shortest.
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