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University of Minnesota professor Don Wyse is being remembered for his fervent advocacy for sustainable crops and building the networks to grow them.
Wyse died Tuesday of injuries suffered in a fall. He was 77.
Wyse co-founded the Forever Green Initiative more than a decade ago as a way to combat monoculture. The project researches and promotes alternative crops that protect water and soil. The perennial grain Kernza is one of more than a dozen sustainable crops developed at the U of M as part of the initiative.
Nick Jordan, who worked with Wyse for 30 years, said his colleague was a gifted scientist who was also highly skilled at bringing people together to advance research.
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“I think it boils down to his political instincts, and specifically his interest in organizing people across lines of difference,” said Jordan. “That’s a very rare trait in a scientist.”
Wyse recently marked a milestone of 50 years at the University of Minnesota. Jordan said Wyse was contemplating retirement in a couple of years but wanted to make sure the Forever Green project was on stable ground before leaving.
Wyse’s approach to science and organizing was shaped by his experience growing up on a farm in Ohio, said Jordan.
“He was entirely convinced that if we are going to be good stewards of land and water and wildlife and rural communities, that would take all hands on deck,” he said. “The private sector, government, universities, farmers, rural communities, environmentalists all had to put their shoulders together.”
Wyse was passionate and persistent and viewed a shift to more sustainable agriculture as a decades-long process.
“It took us 30 years to get to this point, but we now have what I call real crops that have real possibility for the marketplace and for planting by farmers,” said Wyse during a 2021 interview. “And it’s really, really exciting.”
A range of 16 crops from hazelnuts to camelina are under development through the Forever Green Initiative as potential sustainable crops.
Carmen Fernholz, an organic farmer from western Minnesota, knew and collaborated with Wyse for nearly 40 years.
He said Wyse overcame the mistrust that generally existed between farmers and university researchers.
“To make a farmer feel like the work I was doing every day out in the field was equally as important as the work going on at a premier land grant university became the substance of our bonding,” said Fernholz. “We could challenge each other yet hold the deepest respect for each other’s expertise and life experiences.”
The work that Wyse pursued so passionately will continue, said Jordan, in large part because of the networks he nurtured.
“There is a whole river of effort, so to speak, that is flowing strongly, and we are very confident that this work has what it needs to go forward,” he said. “And ultimately, our expression of gratitude and respect and love for Don is to continue to support and nourish that network of people. So his legacy is that network of people.”