wheat

The grass pea — Lathyrus sativus — is hardy and drought resistant. It tastes like a sugar snap pea, although if that's all you were to eat its natural toxin could make you sick. But breeders might be able to address that issue.

Health & Safety

What are 'orphan crops'? And why is there a new campaign to get them adopted?

11:33am April 18, 2024

by Dan Charles

The grass pea is one: a hardy crop that can thrive in a drought. An agriculturist is spearheading an effort to diversity what farmers grow as climate change threatens staples like corn and wheat.

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Workers load grain at a port in Izmail, Ukraine, on April 26. A United Nations-backed deal has been extended allowing shipments of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea to parts of the world struggling with hunger.

World News

The Ukraine grain deal is extended 2 months, helping ease the global food crisis

4:04pm May 17, 2023

An agreement allowing Ukrainian grain to ship through the Black Sea has been extended for two months just a day before its expiration — overcoming Russia's threats to pull out of the deal.

The impact of the Ukraine war on food supplies: 'It could have been so much worse'

4:12pm February 27, 2023

by Nurith Aizenman

That's the view of Joseph Glauber of the International Food Policy Research Institute. He considers the fear the war would lead to a surge in food prices – and a dramatic worsening of world hunger.

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Destroyed tanks and trucks line the farm roads that bisect Mykhailo Liubchenko's plots. The ground fighting has subsided, but there's almost daily shelling in his region near the front lines of the southern campaign of the war.

World News

Ukraine's farmers face Russia's blockade and explosives on their lands this harvest

3:52pm July 03, 2022

by Peter Granitz

Farmers in Ukraine begin to harvest this year's wheat, barley and rapeseed crops as diplomats try to negotiate an end to Russia's Black Sea blockade of exports.

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A farmer harvests a wheat field about 130 miles north of Kyiv in 2009.

World News

Russia's invasion of Ukraine may cause havoc for wheat-importing Mideast nations

2:00pm February 25, 2022

by Jason Beaubien

Last year, the region imported more than 36 million metric tons of wheat, mostly from Russia and Ukraine. The concern is that Russia's war in Ukraine could disrupt supplies and drive up prices.

Jonathan Bethony bakes his whole grain breads in a wood-fired oven, heated to about 500 degrees, to help the weighty loaves rise.

'The Hardest Bakery Possible': Reinventing The Meaning Of 'Whole Grain'

1:19pm November 30, 2017

by Whitney Pipkin

A handful of bakeries are pushing the envelope of what's possible — and palatable — by leaving the bran and germ in freshly milled grains from local farmers, who also help drive the menu.

Green tips of of a newly developed grain called Salish Blue are poking through older, dead stalks in Washington's Skagit Valley.

Don't Call It Wheat: An Environmentally Friendly Grain Takes Root

7:00am February 08, 2017

by Eilís O'Neill

Researchers have developed a new wheat-like species called Salish Blue that grows back year after year, which not only cuts down on work for farmers, but helps prevent erosion and agricultural waste.

An illustration shows spikes of different types of wheat: (1) Polish wheat (2) Club wheat (3) Common bread wheat (4) Poulard wheat (5) Durum wheat (6) Spelt (7) Emmer (8) Einkorn.

Nothing Says 'Hip' Like Ancient Wheat

4:17pm June 27, 2016

by Natalie Jacewicz

Many consumers in North America and Europe are willing to pay a premium for nutritious, organic grains. That makes the market ripe for a revival of millennia-old bread wheat, some plant breeders say.

Low Wheat Prices Leave A Gluten Glut At Midwest's Grain Elevators

11:01pm August 13, 2015

by Rachel Hubbard

Prices have fallen by a third in the past three years. Farmers say they're holding onto their 2015 bushels, hoping prices will creep back up before the end of the year.

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Dan Selvig says wetter conditions helped convince his family to shift their plantings to corn.

National

Shifting Climate Has North Dakota Farmers Swapping Wheat For Corn

11:29am August 14, 2014

by John Ydstie

Projections suggest that climate change will hurt agriculture in most parts of the world. But some areas of the U.S. could actually see a benefit as corn production moves farther north.

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