America's breadbasket is raising less wheat, and record prices for the crop may not change that

As part of its series of stories on the global food crisis, The Washington Post today has a fine story on the decline of wheat, by former Post reporter Dan Morgan, who still covers agriculture for the paper on a contract basis. (Tomorrow, the next story in the series will be "The problem with linking food and fuel.")

Wheat is an iconic crop, probably the one that spawned civilization, and certainly the subject of phrases like "America's breadbasket" and "amber waves of grain." But even though prices for it have risen to record levels, it is in decline in America, as "Many farmers are cutting back on growing wheat in favor of more profitable, less disease-prone corn and soybeans for ethanol refineries and Asian consumers," even in the historic wheat state of North Dakota, Morgan reports. Here's a state-by-state look, via a Post map:
Morgan reports other reasons fewer farmers are raising wheat: As we reported here, it is relatively more susceptible to diseases, seed companies have focused on more profitable crops, climate change and crop research have made corn and soybeans easier to grow in the Wheat Belt, and for the last decade the Farm Bill has allowed farmers "to switch to other crops and still collect government subsidies."

Here's the bottom line from Morgan: "At current prices, farmers . . . can make more money from an acre of corn than from an acre of wheat, according to North Dakota State University economist Dwight Aakre. But wheat's biggest problem is susceptibility to disease, which has turned many farmers against it." (Read more)