"News report from Pioneer PBS in southeastern Minnesota on the newly formed Perennial Promise Growers Cooperative that has an eye towards marketing perennial crops — Kernza®, a perennial grain, to start — that also provide ecosystem services."

Kernza® grain is harvested from intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium). This (cousin) of annual wheat has been grown throughout the USA to provide fodder for livestock. Now intermediate wheatgrass is being domesticated as a grain for human food.

The heritage wheat wizard is adapting grain varieties to present-day climate conditions, developing a local market, and working to diversify the food system.

A community-oriented, grassroots company, Regional Access was built on a vision of providing ecologically responsible, locally grown food in Upstate New York. From humble beginnings in founder Gary Redmond’s garage to their current spacious modern warehouse, the company has flourished over the last few decades, helping to redefine regional food systems and pave the way for a myriad array of new businesses and social efforts focused on improving and developing more sustainable food connections.

What does all this mean for the future of American agriculture? That we should stop trying to build a more resilient and equitable food system on a foundation of an unproven (or disproven) small family farm ideal, especially when a very real set of alternatives is available.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is posting a draft proposal from the Grain Foods Foundation (GFF) requesting the formation of a national promotion, research, and information program for wheat flour used to produce grain foods.  USDA is currently analyzing the proposed order and, if warranted, may publish a proposed rule with request for public comments in the Federal Register. Interested parties can view the draft proposal and justification on the Proposed Research and Promotion Programs webpage.

The provisional proposed assessment rate for millers would be 2.4 cents per 100 pounds of wheat flour sold for the purpose of producing grain foods. The proposed rate for bakers would be 13.6 cents per 100 pounds of wheat flour purchased for the purpose of producing grain foods and 8.2 cents per 100 pounds of grain foods purchased from a sub-baker for a baker to market.

"In 2004, when the “low carb” diet was hitting a popularity high and severely impacting the wheat flour industry, ABA, NAMA, and over 100 individual companies formally joined forces by creating the Grain Foods Foundation (“GFF”), a separate legal entity with a mission to serve as the marketing and communications voice for the industry. Companies and industry associations, like ABA and NAMA, support GFF through voluntary donations. Under new leadership in 2013, GFF reoriented its marketing and communications focus away from the consumer and toward media influencers. This shift in focus better aligned with GFF revenue and has successfully benefited the entire wheat flour industry. Despite this success, however, GFF’s ability to scale up its current programming efforts is limited due to its dependence on voluntary donations from members that keep its annual operational budget under $3 million."

Once, addressing a group of culinary historians, she said, “I tell customers that I’m not here to sell you a loaf of bread. I’m here to sell an organic farming system that will put wheat back in the bread basket.” Such ideology can get a little heavy for the general public, so Ellen jokes that she is banned from working the counter at Hewn...

Heritage Winooski Mill Museum is pleased to present David Macaulay: BUILDING A MILL TOWN as part of the 2020 Vision initiative of the Vermont Curators Group from December 2- March 12. The show is free but timed tickets are required. Timed tickets can be reserved on our website. Featuring original drawings, sketches, research notes, and manuscript from Macaulay’s 1983 book Mill.

“Less than half the breads we looked at that were labeled multigrain, oat or made with whole grain, for instance, contained only whole-grain flours,” Keating says. “And even all-whole-grain breads can be surprising sources of added sugars, sodium and additives that you may want to eat less of.”

It all started with a walk last summer. Dau Xiong and his wife Maria Nguyen were out for a stroll in their hometown of Lafayette when they saw a restaurant up for sale on the outer edge of Old Town. While the two are both restaurant industry vets—Xiong is a chef, and the couple previously owned a fast-casual franchise—they’d never served their own food: the Hmong cuisine Xiong grew up eating, along with the Cajun seafood boils his family loved.