December 14, 2017 Perennial friend, We need perennial agriculture now more than ever. We need more food from tree crops and pastured livestock, from farms powered – as nature is – by deep roots and linked cyclical systems, rather than by toxic inputs of myopic annual monocropping. We need transformative solutions based in wide-horizon paradigms. This is precisely what we are working on at the Savanna Institute, because we truly believe perennial agriculture is key to meeting some of the biggest needs of the 21st century. Will you help us meet these needs? We need to draw down more carbon. Have you seen Paul Hawken’s book Project Drawdown? Among his 100 featured solutions to our climate problem, silvopasture ranks among the top 10. The Savanna Institute is putting silvopasture on the map...the Perennial Map. We continue to build this community so farmers can learn from each other about perennial practices like silvopasture, find resources to help put silvopasture to work pumping carbon into grass roots and tree crops, and connect with people who want to eat the climate-friendly food they raise. We need cleaner water. Despite the best efforts of many farmers, the bare-field seasons of row crop agriculture made for the biggest gulf of Mexico dead zone ever this year. It was so big, the government office charged to measure it ran out of money before they could finish assessing its full size. We need perennial cover on our lands and their deep strong roots holding soil and absorbing nutrients, if we want clean water. This year we teamed up with the regional network Green Lands Blue Waters to pull together their annual meeting with our Perennial Farm Gathering, and the connections among farmers in our community, scholars, business leaders, and community organizers have already catalyzed important partnerships to advance perennial agriculture for cleaner water. We need more monarchs, and bumble bees, and red-headed woodpeckers -- and other plants and animals with continuing alarming population declines. Set-aside patches of “nature” alone won’t do it for habitat; we need our farmland to benefit wildlife as well as the people who call it home. Savanna Institute’s data from case study farms is showing that even in the first few years, fields planted to tree crops - compared to neighboring row crops and untended woodlots - have more abundant pollinators, spiders, and other kinds of helpful arthropods. We need healthier food and stronger communities. King Corn and Queen Bean have chased most of us off the land, benefiting multinational chemical/seed corporations at the expense of hollowed out rural communities. We’re working with farmers to make it more cost-effective to grow crops that nourish people and the land, but many of these crops inherently require more people to do the jobs of raising them and that can be a good thing! Our land access work is helping connect young farmers eager to grow tree crops with landowners who want their farmland to closer match their values...to become more perennial. It’s been a big year for the Savanna Institute. It’s not over yet, and we have some tallying up to do – keep an eye out to read all about it in our forthcoming Perennial Report. Last year was a big year too, so if you didn’t catch it or want a recap, check out our 2016 report. And we hope you can join us for online nutshell discussions and on-farm events in 2018! You can also see a splash in the scientific literature Savanna Institute leaders recently authored. Yet for all these encouraging signs, a drive through the midwestern countryside quickly shows we have a long way to go.

This year we lost some visionaries and those dear to us; we also welcomed new life into the world. Please join us in building a bridge to the future we all need: a future with landscapes of abundance and diversity, a stable climate, clean water, healthy food, and strong communities. Thank you if you have supported us in the past. And if you’re new to our community, a warm welcome to you. The grass is greener over here, because you make a perennial future possible! And it’s not just money that advances the Savanna Institute mission – we gratefully put all kinds of gifts to work. We thank you – the future thanks you – for what support you can generously give. Perennially yours in gratitude and respect, Keefe & the Savanna Institute team