Wheat was developed in the Fertile Crescent area of the Middle East. Einkorn was likely the first to be domesticated, followed by emmer. Bread or pastry wheat, Triticum aestivum, was likely formed from a spontaneous cross between emmer and a wild grass, which then was selected by people. This type of wheat, also called hexaploid or common wheat, has a ratio of gluten proteins that are conducive to making bread. The Midwest was once known as the breadbasket of America because of wheat. Though this status has changed, there is potential to revive wheat as a significant crop in regional food systems.
Wheat is a dominant staple crop around the world. In the 1940s, Norman Borlaug innovated wheat breeding, with a focus on increasing productivity to solve world hunger. One of the traits he targeted was height; shorter wheat would not fall over in the field, and more fertilizer could be used to boost yield. This led to the Green Revolution, a movement to expand agricultural technology in developing countries. Globally, this initiated heightened use of artificial farm inputs, which led to water pollution and the disruption of local production of traditional crops and regional economies.
Wheat is an essential human food, and critical for regional food systems. Through careful production practices, it can be grown in ways that are environmentally beneficial, and help form the basis of a more diverse agricultural system. Efforts underway to perennialize wheat and other grain crops offer even greater potential for an agriculture that is more attuned to natural systems.
Common wheats do not have a hull. There are no commercially available GMO varieties of wheat. In the dominant production system, wheat is classified in six groups that reflect the hardness or softness of the endosperm in the kernels, protein concentration, bran color, and when the grains were planted. The range of seed varieties used in standard production is limited by the performance demands of the industrial food system.
In regional grain systems, farmers have more power to choose what they plant. Their decisions can reflect the realities of their land, specific climates, and processing capabilities. Selling directly to bakers, brewers, other food businesses, and individual eaters allows agronomic needs and interpersonal relationships, rather than global market forces, to shape the seeds that are grown.
Function: The grain most often used by bakers, home and commercial alike, wheat is a prevalent part of many Americans’ diets in the form of bread, pastries, cookies, crackers, and other foods. Soft wheats have lower protein and are suited to crackers, pastry and other baked goods; hard wheats are generally used for bread, because of their higher protein levels. Wheat is also used in brewing and distilling, including for German beer styles such as Hefeweizen.
Flavor profile: Flour is assumed to be tasteless because refined white flour is stripped of the bran and germ, which are the parts of the kernel that contain fat, and therefore, flavor. Whole wheat flour is associated with a bitter taste because of tannins in the bran of red wheats; this is why white wheats have grown in popularity. As regional grain systems emerge, people are naming the tastes that wheat can express, a range including grassy, chocolatey, earthy and nutty. Each type of wheat, the year’s growing conditions, and the place the seeds are grown contribute flavor variations.
Nutritional info: All wheat provides starch and protein, and when bran and germ are included—as is typically the case in regional grain systems—it also offers fiber, vitamins, and micronutrients. The roller milled white flour of commodity grain systems is generally enriched with vitamins to address nutrition lost in processing.