Wes Jackson, founder and president emeritus of the Land Institute, is the scheduled presenter Sunday at the Unitarian Universality Fellowship of Salina.

Jackson is scheduled to speak at 10:30 a.m at the Unitarian Universality Fellowship of Salina, 901 Beatrice. The topic will be “Why a Creaturely World View Should Be the Poster Child for the Green New Deal.”

Much has been made, and much more remains to be made, of sorting out what a resilient and sustainable economy, agricultural or otherwise, would look like in the face of ongoing climate chaos.

The public is welcome to attend.

Jackson earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Kansas Wesleyan University and went on to complete a doctorate in genetics from North Carolina State University. He established and served as chair of one of the country’s first environmental studies programs at California State University-Sacramento. He then returned to his native Kansas to found The Land Institute in 1976, beginning a long crusade to create perennial grains that can grow in polycultures. One of The Land’s crops is the first new grain in 4,200 years, and the first perennial grain ever.

Jackson is the author of several books, including New Roots for Agriculture, Becoming Native to This Place, Consulting the Genius of the Place, and most recently Nature as Measure. Jackson is widely recognized as a leader in the international movement for a more sustainable agriculture.

He was a Pew Conservation Scholar in 1990, a MacArthur Fellow in 1992, and received the Right Livelihood Award in 2000. Life magazine included him as one of 18 individuals predicted to be among the 100 important Americans of the 20th century. Smithsonian in 2005 included him as one of “35 Who Made a Difference.”