WHEAT AWARENESS-Dwarfing, Biodiversity and Nutrition

Compare the Peter Bruegel painting from 1565 of a wheat harvest to the photo of modern wheat harvesting. Wheat has changed! Ancient varieties of wheat grew tall and were prone to lodging or bending in heavy wind and rain so breeders shortened wheat by changing genetics. Natural lodging was not the only reason for this quite dramatic change.

When synthetic fertilizer was invented and used in the 1900’s to increase yields, wheat stems grew tall quickly and the increased number of kernels made the plants top-heavy, prone to toppling over. Cereal scientists first created dwarfed varieties in Japan. Orville Vogel worked in the US to increase wheat yields and lower the plants to about 25 inches, creating efficient semi-dwarf varieties that eventually spread around the globe. After WW II, wheat was drastically shortened in a breeding project in Italy using Japanese seeds that were subsequently exposed to radiation to create a genetic mutation. Celiac groups in Italy have been outspoken in suggesting this change to Italian wheat led to a drastic increase in disease, but the breeder himself states that he is sure the gluten did not change.

Plant breeding can be perfectly simple and harmless and has greatly benefit the food supply. However, the more one learns about wheat’s rapid transformation over the past 50 years, doubts to the real benefits begin to surface. Was man’s efforts to redesign nature’s treasured first crop well thought out?

Striving to increase yields did not help agriculture. In 1840, 70% of Americans were engaged in farming, this dropped to 12% in 1950 and less than 2% in 2002. High yielding farming techniques squeezed out the small farmer and single crops were planted in large areas. This led to quicker spread of disease and increased use of pesticides.

 The food industry developed quickly during the last century and so did a need for reliable raw material at lower costs that gave consistent results to finished products. Cereal scientists began to identify that certain varieties of wheat produced better bread or better pasta or were easier to mill. Varieties had been comingled for thousands of years, but were now separated, essentially limiting the genetic variety of our food.

New hybrid varieties displaced older ones, causing the world to lose 75% of crop diversity between 1900 and 2000. Biodiversity equals food security because ancient varieties were genetically very hardy after thousands of years of adapting to disease and climate change. New varieties are constantly redeveloped and replaced because many fail to perform or the desire to improve on the improved continues.

Increased yields caused the nutritional value of wheat to diminish. For all crops, modern plant breeding has had a negative effect on nutrition and flavor. Food in 1950 was proven much more nutritious than what we eat today.

We all know gluten sensitivities and Celiac Disease are rapidly increasing. Many argue that increased awareness and diagnosis explains this trend. Can intentionally breeding improved wheat varieties with stronger gluten or increased gluten not be a cause for concern?

The breeding of high yielding wheat varieties aimed at alleviating world hunger. This issue is very controversial, as 900 million people worldwide still do not have enough food. At the same time, so many of us have too much or are wasteful. Alleviating world hunger has been the justification for industrializing agriculture. Is this the real solution or is there a fair way to distribute food around the world?

There is so much more to learn and discuss and to change! We hope you will keep reading our Wheat Awareness posts this month.