The Kansas Farmers Union honored Dr. Wes Jackson with its 2025 Linda Hessman Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to Rural Kansas at its 118th anniversary convention earlier this winter
Jackson, a prominent environmentalist and plant geneticist, is a 1958 graduate of Kansas Wesleyan, former faculty member and faculty emeritus. A co-founder of The Land Institute in Salina, he is known for his work on developing perennial crops, such as Kernza, a perennial wheat.
“This is a way to honor him for the work he has done and continues to do,” said Nick Levandofsky, executive director of Kansas Farmers Union.
The award is named for the late Linda Hessman, a longtime board member of Kansas Farmers Union.
The honor is the latest in a list of state, national and international awards. The author of several books, his most recent is “An Inconvenient Apocalypse,” written with Robert Jensen.
Jackson was the subject of a 2025 feature-length documentary “Prairie Prophecy.”
Release by Jean Kozubowski
Photo provided by Kansas Farmers Union
