The Climate Crisis is Now
A Story About Grain
Two and a half weeks ago, as we were preparing for our first farmers market in Vermont, we got some shocking news: the entire crop of Appalachian wheat that we were planning to use for our conchas had been contaminated with mycotoxins.
Mycotoxins, especially vomitoxin (also referred to as DON), are produced when a fungal disease breaks out on wheat. This disease is called Fusarium Head Blight, or Scab, and it’s every grain farmer’s worst nightmare. Sometimes the wheat heads are visibly affected, resulting in miscolored, shrunken patches. Other times, the grain farmer only learns that their crop is affected once the standard tests are completed and the lab results are in. Mycotoxins are so harmful if eaten in large quantities that an affected crop is rendered useless. It can’t even be used for livestock feed. In the case of our grain farmer, this meant a loss of 7,000 pounds of wheat.
Dealing with mycotoxins has always been an issue for wheat farmers, but changes in climate patterns are making it more common. In the case of our Appalachian wheat, it was untimely rain during the flowering period that caused the Fusarium Head Blight, ruining the entire crop and nearly a year’s worth of work. Farmers are entirely dependent on weather patterns, and when the weather patterns change, the results can be catastrophic.
With grains making up such a large percentage of our diets, I think increased occurrences of disease are very concerning. The big food giants are so successful because they operate by hiding the experience of any one farmer from the view of the consumers. The giant factories that make our favorite wheat-based products like cereal and crackers are essentially producing a product that is the average of many different crops of wheat. In mathematical terms, averages work by minimizing the impact of outliers on a final product. In large-scale food production, the same thing happens. If one farmer’s crop is unusable, they experience the loss and financial struggle alone while the averaging effect allows us customers to continue to purchase our favorite products at the same price, unaware that there’s any issue at all.
For the big food manufacturers, this approach works great until it doesn’t. What happens when instances of disease and crop failures increase to the extent that there is no longer a statistically significant success rate to fall back on? When the number of farmers who are left with nothing to sell goes from the minority to the majority, what will the effects be on our food supply and on the cost of groceries? The American food economy is based on monopoly control. That means we don’t see the problems; it doesn’t mean they’re not there.
Part of being an active participant in the movement to support small grain farmers means that we have a responsibility to bear witness to both the successes and failures of the crops we depend on. Anything less is just wishful thinking. And as climate change progresses, the likely result is there will be fewer successes and more failures. How will those of us on the receiving end of the crop chain support our grain farmers when they have nothing to sell us?
These are the questions we’ve been thinking about ever since we heard the news about our Appalachian wheat. We experienced several weeks of uncertainty and a bit of sadness. We also immediately realized that the one upside is this crop failure gives us a concrete example of what climate change is doing to grain that we can share with everyone. If you were a customer of our NYC bakery, you ate our conchas made with Appalachian, and you know just how special that grain is. If you visited us at the Vermont farmers market, you heard this story from us in person. If you’re reading this blog post, you’re learning it now. Thanks for paying attention.
This story does have a happy ending, and we’ll share part two next week. But for now, I encourage you to sit with the feeling of loss for our grain farmer as we have for the past few weeks. I also encourage you to think about what steps we had to take as bakers after learning of the crop failure. Such steps will likely become a common practice for many of us.
Wow! A whole crop ruined. How ruinous that must be for the farmers.