I was excited to read about the biography of wheat. I may be in the minority, but it’s true! Wheat and my family history were intertwined for more than a century. My great grandparents immigrated from Germany and established a farm in Kansas in the 1800s. My grandparents and uncles continued working the farm and growing wheat until the business went the way of most family farms several years ago. All of this is to say that I grew up surrounded by talk of wheat: When to plant? When to harvest? What is the current market price? Which fields should lay fallow this year? And of course, how much rain is in the forecast?

I was expecting the story of wheat to be like the treatment of corn in The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Instead, the author focused so much more on the biological concepts that connected to the...

You do not currently have access to this content.