Recently, a multimillion dollar donation was made to the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) from Kikkoman Foods, Inc., a world-renowned soy sauce company. This donation will support a number of CALS research projects, including the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping System Trial (WICST) and Grassland 2.0, which are both led by Nelson Institute affiliate and agronomy professor Randy Jackson.
Jackson and fellow Nelson affiliates Michael Bell, Claudio Gratton, Chris Kucharik, Matt Ruark, and Erin Silva are on the WICST team exploring how to best manage agriculture in a rapidly changing world and “pioneering new approaches to meet the farming challenges of the present and future.”
Jackson, Bell, Gratton, Kucharik, and Ruark are also working on the Grassland 2.0 project, along with Adena Rissman. The Grassland 2.0 project advocates for restorative agriculture to promote “thriving, diverse communities; clean water, flood reduction, stable climate, and biodiversity.”
Kikkoman first started brewing soy sauce in Wisconsin in 1973, and their donation aims to “protect the resources that initially drew the world’s leading soy sauce producer to Wisconsin.” Read more about the Kikkoman Foods, Inc. donation here.