Multi-sector Effort to Increase Perennial Grain Adoption
Sturdiwheat Original Pancake Mix with Perennial Percent™ Label
Perennial Percent™ Features Kernza® Perennial Grain
Salina, Kansas, Oct. 08, 2024 – The Land Institute today announced the launch of the Perennial Percent™ label. This innovative initiative encourages food and beverage companies to incorporate small percentages of perennial grains, such as Kernza®, into their existing product lines. Perennial Percent™ is the world’s first and only program for perennial grain products and ingredients. Because perennials are planted once and harvested for multiple years, it empowers consumers to help keep soil in place and reduce carbon emissions through their purchasing choices.
By focusing on gradual adoption rather than requiring a complete overhaul of product formulations, Perennial Percent™ provides a practical path for food and beverage manufacturers to utilize perennial grains. The label indicates a company’s commitment to ecological change toward healthy crops, soil, water, and air from transitioning to perennial agriculture.
“Perennial Percent™ is a game-changer for the food industry,” said Tessa Peters, Director of Crop Stewardship at The Land Institute. “By encouraging companies to use even small amounts of perennial grains in their popular products, we can significantly increase the overall market penetration of these tasty and sustainable emerging crops and drive positive environmental impact at scale.”
Minnesota-based Sturdiwheat will be the first food company to include a Perennial Percent™ label in its entire line of baking mixes. With two Kernza products already on the market, Honeyed Kernza® Muffin Mix and Kernza® Cinnamon Pancake Mix, the 80-year-old family-owned company was excited to incorporate the perennial grain into their entire portfolio of baking mixes from pancakes to popovers.
“We are excited to support the Perennial Percent™ label and see it gain traction in the market,” said Missi Blue, Sturdiwheat’s co-owner. “We live and work along the Mississippi River and care deeply about the river’s water quality. Using deep-rooted perennial Kernza grain not only makes delicious products but also builds a market for regenerative ingredients, giving farmers an economic incentive to plant more acres of perennial crops.”
The Perennial Percent™ label is open to any food or beverage containing at least 1% of Kernza perennial grain. Other perennial grains, like the forthcoming perennial Baki™ bean, may be considered for inclusion in the program in the future.
Sandy Boss Febbo, owner and brewer at Bang Brewing, helped spark and name the broader Perennial Percent™ initiative. Bang, which began brewing with Kernza in 2017, was the first brewery to include the grain in its entire beer line-up with the launch of its Perennial Percent series in 2020. “While we love brewing unique beers with a high percentage of Kernza, you can tell a bigger story of this grain’s potential impact with a small percentage inclusion across all your beers,” says Boss Febbo. “And for macro breweries, brewing just one style or brand of beer with 1% Kernza could move a huge volume of grain, helping grow the market for brewers and food makers of all sizes while supporting the kind of regenerative farming we need to better steward our soil, water, and communities.”
Food and beverage makers interested in participating in the program can learn more at the Perennial Percent™ label web page or contact The Land Institute’s Crop Stewardship Program to enroll their products and receive a brand guide. The first 20 members enrolled before January 2026 will benefit from waived fees for their initial year of participation.
The Perennial Percent™ initiative and related collaborators include:
- The Land Institute
- Sturdiwheat
- Bang Brewing
- Forever Green at University of Minnesota
- Sustain-A-Grain
- Mad Agriculture
- Perennial Promise Growers Cooperative
- Merge Impact
- Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance
- USDA Kernza®CAP
The Perennial Percent™ label is supported by AFRI Sustainable Agricultural Systems Coordinated Agricultural Program (SAS-CAP) grant no. 2020-68012-31934 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
