the yields of agricultural staples, Borlaug created a new variety of wheat that produced huge quantities of large kernels when heavily fertilized. Because this wheat variety grows low to the ground, it does not topple under its seed head’s increased weight and is far easier to harvest by machine.
Borlaug, known as the Father of the Green Revolution, was awarded the President’s Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. The extraordinarily productive wheat he developed now comprises more than 90 percent of the wheat grown worldwide and has essentially replaced most other strains of wheat in the US. According to Dr. Allan Fritz of Kansas State University, 98 percent of US flour is ground from this wheat.
But no safety tests were ever conducted on the new food. Scientists simply assumed that any variations in gluten content and structure or changes in the wheat’s enzymes and proteins would not affect humans. Yet analyses of the proteins in the new wheat hybrid show that 5 percent of the new wheat’s proteins are not present in either parent. It is a different plant altogether. It is a plant that is far needier than its ancestors.
The hybridized strains of modern wheat are sterile and unable to pollinate naturally, and so require chemical agents to reproduce. In addition, they need excessive amounts of petrochemical fertilizers, pesticides (such as the extremely toxic sodium azide), and fungicides. Farmers apply hormone-like substances or “plant growth regulators” to control time of germination and strength of stalk.
The harvested wheat is sprayed with chemical “protectants” and its storage bins are doused with insecticides. The grain is then dried at very high temperatures, which diminish its protein, nutritional properties, and baking qualities. Next it is ground at high speeds that destroy vitamin E content and treated with conditioners and preservatives to prevent sticking. Wheat and flour were the first foods the Food and Drug Administration approved for irradiation, using high-speed electron beams to eradicate pests, in 1963. Studies show, however, that irradiated foods may disrupt lymph cells in humans.
Whether whole wheat is healthier than white flour is irrelevant: both are ground from the same strain of hybrid wheat. The changes in this wheat’s gluten structure are now being blamed for the digestive problems of over eighteen million Americans. Wheat is the only grain that contains glutenin and gliadin, the essential molecules that form gluten, an elastic material that gives bread dough its viscosity, thickness, and extensibility—in short, its muscular strength. The word means “glue” in Latin, and in China, gluten is referred to as the “muscle of flour.” When professional bakers talk about the dough’s “strength” they mean the amount of gluten it contains. To help dough rise, the flour’s gluten traps the carbon-dioxide bubbles created through the yeast’s activity. High-gluten dough will yield a lofty loaf with a crispy crust.
This new form of gluten is being blamed for wheat allergies as well as celiac disease. According to Dr. William Davis, a Milwaukee internist, the hybridization efforts to confer baking and aesthetic characteristics on flour have generated numerous changes in wheat’s gluten-coding genes. “These genetically transformed glutens are thought responsible for triggering celiac disease and many of the odd health phenomena humans suffer,” Davis has said. After putting himself on a wheat-free diet, Davis lost weight and claims to feel energized. His patients make the same claims. Yet this new wheat may not be the only villain in today’s flour. Chemicals—fungicides, leavening agents, whiteners, texture-enhancing products and the soy they contain—are probably harmful, as well.
It is difficult to separate the dangers of modern wheat from those of commercial bread. The most recent studies suggest that “vital wheat gluten,” or wheat protein added to commercial bread dough to create a loftier and more tender loaf, may also be responsible for the spike in wheat allergies. Nearly twenty million people in the US contend that they experience distress after eating products containing wheat and one-third of American adults say they are trying to eliminate it from their diets.
I am one of those Americans, though stepping away from bread wasn’t easy for me. As a child, while my sister begged for lollipops and my brother stashed potato chips in his room, I tore the insides out of Wonder Bread to eat slathered with butter and sugar. I learned to bake bread from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook and discovered how to braid together rye and wheat dough into fancy loaves to sell to the local gourmet shop. Several years after we arrived in Minneapolis, Gelpe’s Old World Bakery on Hennepin Avenue began selling hand-shaped loaves of artisan bread, better than anything I’d tasted in New York City or San Francisco. Shortly after, I stopped making my own bread and relied on Gelpe’s for my loaves.
The only problem with Gelpe’s was that it was simply too good. I ate more of it than was right for me. After our second son was born, I found myself suffering from chronic fatigue and sought help from a chiropractor. She tested me for food sensitivities. Wheat was the number-one food she suggested I eliminate from my diet.
That night, as I sat in my kitchen, hoping that some steamed sweet potatoes might subdue my craving for a slice of Gelpe’s dense whole-wheat miche, I felt pretty sorry for myself. Bread was more than part of my diet—too many nights, it was my diet. On busy, rushed evenings, racing to sports practices and parents’ meetings or staying up late to make a deadline, I’d relied too often on a bagel or a heel of good rye, slathered with sweet butter and sprinkled with coarse salt. Like a friend who keeps you up late watching bad TV reruns, this habit was one I needed to give up.
Going wheat free opened up a range of good food I already knew I should be eating. I sought and introduced to my children more sweet potatoes, roasted and drizzled with balsamic vinegar; Yukon gold oven fries with aioli; and chili-spiked black beans. I became slightly thinner, but I also became a more interested and interesting cook, with a shelf full of vinegars and delicious oils. When we entertain, we’ll still fill a basket with delicious slices—but the focus of the meal won’t be the bread.
With the creation of our modern wheat, scientists avoided one disaster—they fed the world and made a product that could continue to do so for decades to come—but they did it by tricking nature. According to Jaradat, the work was unnecessary and harmful. He explains, “Wheat can evolve without the use of chemicals; it can adjust naturally to the soil conditions, withstand pests and diseases, and thrive in a variety of locations in countries throughout the world. Before modernization, farmers left the stalk on the ground after harvest. The plant’s roots helped stem erosion and as the plant decomposed it enriched the soil. Today’s fields are stripped and replanted with each new crop. The constant tilling and planting is responsible for the tremendous soil erosion and runoff.
“Today’s wheat is lazy. It’s spoiled, we feed it everything it needs,” he continued. “By tampering with its genetics, we’ve created a food that provides farmers and manufacturers with maximum yield at the lowest cost.” Besides bread, crackers, pasta, etc., this new modified wheat is also processed into a cheap stabilizer used in luncheon meat, hot dogs, salad dressings, and even self-basting turkey.
“But more dangerous than anything else, modern wheat is unsustainable,” Jaradat contends. “We are witnessing the near elimination of diverse strains of wheat, vital to human and environmental health and food security. It requires tremendous amounts of toxic chemicals to grow and process this crop.” Arguing the need to reintroduce heritage strains, Jaradat added, “The recent genetic management of this crop has shifted to the hands of industrial breeders, but with hidden costs. Modern wheat has evolved through a genetic bottleneck of breeding for uniformity and high yield; it’s dwarfed and designed for ease of harvest with goliath combines and dependent on chemical protectants to survive. In contrast, the landrace wheat evolved in low-input fields. These strains are genetically diverse, are better adapted to organic systems, are the robust survivors of adversity, and have
