The Midwest is known for its rows and rows of corn and soybeans that uniformly cover the landscape. But in central Missouri, farmer Linus Rothermich disrupts the usual corn and soybean rotation with Japanese millet. He has been growing it since 1993.
Sorghum—popular among young, BIPOC, and under-resourced farmers—has extra long roots that allow it to withstand drought and sequester greenhouse gasses.
Farmer Alhaji Dabuo’s switch to sorghum is part of a wider move by farmers to embrace so-called “lost crops” from decades past and implement their own locally-led adaptations to the unpredictable weather linked to climate change.