Chapter 1

On the Verge of
Extinction

heat whispers the journeys of the people who planted them: the
village traditions, the trading and migrations that are kneaded
into our breads. The heritage wheat of North America originated in the
majestic landraces of the Fertile Crescent and Old Europe. When people
immigrated to the New World, they brought cherished landrace seeds from
their homeland. These are the wheats that nourished earlier peoples, but
today they are almost lost, replaced by modern Green Revolution wheat
dependent on agrochemicals to survive.
For the past 12,000 years farmers have selected seed, generation by
generation, to develop the landrace1 wheats that nourished civilizations.
Landrace wheats have robust root systems that reach out to absorb organic
nutrients, height that shades out encroaching weeds, root exudates that
suppress the weeds (no herbicides needed), complex resistances to local
diseases, and incomparable flavor. Yet who today has heard of a landrace?
Today genetic management of wheat has shifted to the hands of industrial breeders who have replaced landraces worldwide with patented
commercial varieties that are bred for uniformity in agrochemical-soaked
fields. Modern wheats narrow genetic base leaves them vulnerable to disease and lacking adaptability to the weather extremes of drought and heavy
rain. Global warming looms menacingly. Industrial wheat, the most widely
grown crop on the planet, is a teetering monocrop that has been fine-tuned
for predictable weather in computer-controlled mega-farms; dwarfed for
1

Restoring Heritage Grains

efficient harvest; and dependent on irrigation, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers to survive. It is bred like a pedigree racehorse for high performance
in optimal conditions, but it is weak under adversity. Just as a monocropped
variety of potato was wiped out in Ireland by a strain of blight in 1845, the
uniformity of modern wheat is a disaster waiting to happen.
Economies of scale enable industrially bred wheat to be produced
cheaply and yield well in favorable conditions, but with hidden costs. The
industrial food system leaves 1.3 billion people hungry worldwide, yet it
uses more fertilizer, more pesticides, and more energy than low-input ecological agriculture. Modern wheat has been bred to be addicted to a fix of
high-nitrogen fertilizers. But what did the peasants of yore grow? Where
are the almost-forgotten traditional varieties?
This book tells the story of my journey to explore the history and heritage of wheat. We have been scammed by multinational corporations to the
extent that few US farmers today even know what landrace wheat is. After
years of research I want to shout the truth to the world: that the almostforgotten heritage wheats have higher yields than modern wheat in organic
soils. That they are safer for people with gluten allergies. That we have been
robbed of our inheritance of seed saving. Wheat is easy to grow. Small-scale
farmers and gardeners can be self-sufficient in growing our own grains.
Modern wheat is no longer nourishing us. It is an empty harvest bloated
with nitrate chemicals, causing an epidemic of obesity and ill health.
Modern breeding has been so successful in achieving its goal of covering
the world with uniform Green Revolution varieties that the heritage wheats
that were once grown by traditional farmers worldwide are disappearing.
Few heritage wheats are grown in the United States, and they are minimally
available worldwide. The unprecedented erosion of wheat biodiversity
threatens not only food security, but also nutrition and culinary art.
Even the Fertile Crescent countries of Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, the
ancestral home of wild wheat, today buy over 95 percent of their wheat
from US mega-farms. The most delicious wheatsthe vast biodiversity of
wheat species that are best adapted to organic fields, the wheats that nourished civilizationsare almost lost to the world.
The story of how humankinds staple food has become a toxic substance
reveals wheat as an indicator organism, like a canary in a coal mine. Indeed, it
is because of the central, sacred role of the ancient staff of life that the inner
2

On the Verge of Extinction

realities of modern agriculture, world trade, and industrial food are dramatically exposed. Can we reach into the heart of this beast and restore wheat into
the majestic nourishing being it once was? The magnificent health and rich
diversity of landrace wheat is transformative, imparting hope to each of us.
Like Gandhis Salt March, when he led the people to collect free life-giving
salt, each of us has the potential to feed ourselves and our communities using
the restoration of humankinds age-old, staple food crop as an inspiration.

The Roots of Modern Wheat

The scientific revolution of the nineteenth century heralded the rise of reason. Charles Darwin formulated the theory of evolution. Gregor Mendel
developed the theory of inheritance, making possible a new approach to
breed single plants with specific traits. This method, known as pedigree
breeding, creates uniform pure lines with little capacity for adaptation.
In 1868 a Scottish breeder found a unique plant in his field that was
shorter and stockier than other wheats. The stalk was exceptionally sturdy.
He selected this one plant and multiplied it. Its stocky seedhead suggested
the name of Squarehead. It became popular as the increased use of synthetic
nitrogen fertilizer spread. Soon, much of the wheat planted in Europe became
crossed with Squarehead. Landraces disappeared throughout Europe.
Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, was a hard-working
Midwestern farm boy who came of age in the grueling years of the
Depression. Knowing well the pangs of hunger, he devoted his life to alleviating starvation by breeding high-yielding wheats that were dwarfed to
not lodge (fall over) in soils fed by synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Borlaug
combined diverse genes for complex disease resistance, while streamlining the wheats for similar heights, flowering times, and maturity dates to
advance conventional large-scale farming systems the world over. Borlaugs
brilliance developed under the specter of progress through chemicals.
Chemical and agribusiness industries profited from Borlaugs promotion of
their products of patented seeds and herbicides.
To overcome the problem that dwarfed wheats are towered over by
normal-height weeds, Borlaugs miracle wheat relied on the heavy use
of agrochemicals. Borlaug believed that synthetic fertilizer only replaces
substances naturally present in the soils anyway.2 He did not notice that
3

Restoring Heritage Grains

the loss of the beneficial disease-controlling bacteria, mycorrhizal fungi,
and earthworms invited susceptibility to attack from insects and pathogens. Although Borlaugs dwarfed wheats do yield higher than traditional
varieties when given intensive irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides, the
traditional varieties outperform the modern varieties in organic farming
systems. The dwarfed wheats fail under the stresses of weather extremes,
whereas einkorn, emmer, and many other landrace wheats thrive. I documented this in four years of scientific trials funded by the USDA Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Education Program.

The Loss of Biodiversity

and Indigenous Knowledge
We are living in a period of unprecedented extinctions. The UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 90 percent of the food
crops grown 100 years ago have disappeared from farmers fields and are
functionally extinct.3 Of the approximately 250,000 plant species on our
planet, about 50,000 are edible, yet only 15 crops provide 90 percent of our
calories. Wheat, corn, and rice provide 60 percent, yet only a tiny fraction
of their vast biodiversity is grown in the modern field. Since wheat is the
most widely grown food crop, modern plant breeders have focused on it
more than any other crop. Industrys obsession with genetic uniformity,
high yield, and profit has taken the work of Borlaug to a dangerous extreme
by replacing the worlds wealth of biodiversity with monocultures inconceivable a generation ago.
Modern wheat systems not only deplete the self-regenerating cycles of
living soil but have destroyed the indigenous farming knowledge of generations of peasant farmers. The primary goal of industrial breeders is to
increase yield, broadening adaptability and productivity over as wide an
area as possible. The uniform standardization of varieties legally protects
plant breeders rights so breeders can claim royalties. These imperatives
promote genetic homogeneity, reduce variables in the growing environment, and eliminate the traditional seed mixtures that foster greater
adaptability to local environments through population diversity.
When biodiversity is lost, the capacity of a crop to evolve and adapt is
destroyed. We do not have to wait until the last landrace wheat dies before
wheat is on the verge of extinction. It becomes threatened when it loses its
4

On the Verge of Extinction

ability to evolve and adapt to new conditions, when neither its bottlenecked
genetics nor its load of chemicals can protect it. That day has come quietly
as modern wheat blankets the earth.
Before the introduction of Green Revolution monocultures, wheat was
intercropped and rotated with legumes and other diverse soil-building
crops. Heavy infusions of chemical fertilizers destroy the vital soil
organisms that are natures recycling system for nutrients and the soils
natural defense against disease and pathogens. The global wheat systems
agrochemicals have sterilized millions of acres of formerly fertile topsoil.
Ironically, Borlaugs wheats, created to feed the world, have set the stage for
the depletion of the worlds agricultural soils.

Follow the Money

With the multiple, problematic side effects of chemical-dependent modern
wheat, why then would intelligent scientists introduce it? Let us follow the
chain of actors to discover who really benefits from the Green Revolution.
In low-input organic wheat fields the world over, landrace wheats outperform modern wheat, so why would anyone want to phase them out? Who
benefits from the petroleum-based wheat system? You guessed it. The
energy and oil companies are the ones who reap vast profits. Who is behind
these huge energy corporations?
The Rockefellers oil empire began in 1870 when John D. Rockefeller
founded Standard Oil. He became Americas first billionaire, and later the
richest man in the world. After the US Supreme Court created antitrust laws
in 1910, ruling that monopolies were illegal, Standard morphed into smaller
interlinked companies. The successor companies from Standard Oils
breakup form the core of todays US oil industry that includes ExxonMobil,
British Petroleum (BP), Chevron, and more. The Green Revolution was the
brainchild of the Rockefeller Foundation in partnership with Monsanto,
Cargill, and DuPont. Green Revolution wheat increases wheat productivity
with petrochemicals at a huge environmental and health cost, while consolidating economic profit into the hands of an elite few.
The Green Revolutions dramatic increase in wheat yield created a pressing need to exploit new world markets. Tragically, the subsidized wheat
sold to developing countries not only replaced landrace wheats but put
Third World farmers out of business.
5

Restoring Heritage Grains

Since the 1960s, the Jordanian government has bought subsidized US
wheat that is sold at below-market prices throughout the country. Who
benefits? The Jordanian national seed bank director explained the full picture to me. He was livid and felt powerless. While US-based multinational
wheat companies make huge profits, the small-scale Jordanian farmers
cannot compete with subsidized US wheat. Green Revolution seeds did not
prevent a famine in Jordan. They caused it. Precious Jordanian landrace
wheats are on the verge of extinction as a result.
Vandana Shiva reports how the Indian government subsidized Indian
wheat for the global market, only to hike prices for their own people, causing widespread hunger at home.
Iraqi farmers have been saving wheat and barley seed since the dawn
of agriculture. However, as part of economic restructuring by the Bush
administration, Iraqi farmers are now forbidden to save their own seeds.
The George W. Bush administration updated Iraqs intellectual property
law to meet current international standards of plant protection, making it
illegal to save the irreplaceable drought-hardy landrace seeds that evolved
over millennia in the hands of traditional peasants.4 Farmers are forced to
buy patented modern seeds from Monsanto, Cargill, and the World Wide
Wheat Company.

Eating Oil: The Green Revolution

Feeds Global Warming
Modern wheat is dependent on petroleum. Green Revolution foods are bred
with an umbilical cord to fossil fuelbased chemical fertilizers, pesticides,
and herbicides, and to an oil-based supply chain. A decline in oil and gas
production would cause catastrophic famines. At a time when we should
be decreasing greenhouse emissions, the food system is increasing its carbon footprint to the point where it has become a significant contributor to
global warming. While Green Revolution cereal production has more than
doubled in developing regions such as India, Africa, and Asia, the ratio of
crops produced to energy input has decreased. Vast amounts of oil and gas
are used as raw materials and energy in the manufacture of fertilizers and
pesticides for all aspects of production, from planting, irrigation, feeding,
and harvesting to processing, distribution, and packaging. Fossil fuels are
essential in the construction and the repair of farm machinery, processing
6

On the Verge of Extinction

facilities, storage, ships, trucks, and roads. The global wheat supply system
is one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels and one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gases.
Chemical fertilizers account for at least 38 percent of the greenhouse gas
emissions from agriculture. They emit nitrogen oxide, which is 300 times
more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.5 Removing chemical
fertilizers is a critical strategy that can reduce the emissions that cause climate change. Like the addiction to oil, the addiction to chemical fertilizers
ultimately benefits only the multinational corporations. The corporations
that sell expensive fertilizers to Third World farmers are the very same
ones that buy up the low-cost wheat from the farmers to resell on the global
wheat exchange.
The world is seeking a low-cost technology to reverse global warming.
Why not consider photosynthesis and organic farming? Plants absorb billions upon billions of tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide, transforming it
into plant biomass, food, and soil. Heritage wheat has at least 500 percent
greater leaf surface area than modern wheat. Healthy soil itself is the largest
known sponge for carbon dioxide, sequestering more than the atmosphere,
plants, and trees combined.

Gluten Intolerant or Poison Intolerant

Monsantos Roundup weed poison, with its active ingredient glyphosate,
is sprayed on conventional wheat crops to promote drying down of the
plant prior to harvest. Could this be a contributing cause of the rise in
wheat intolerance? Roundup not only destroys the beneficial bacteria in
the human gut and contributes to permeability of the intestinal wall but
causes autoimmune disease symptoms. Glyphosate residues are common
in nonorganic wheat.
Glyphosate use has increased 400 percent in the past two decades. The
rise in glyphosate use is equal to the rise in the amount of glyphosate found
in sampled bread. Over a third of bread tested in 2013 in England contained
measurable amounts of the weed killer.6
Never fear. Monsanto attempts to clear the air, explaining that Roundup
herbicides have a long history of safe use at home and in agricultural settings.
The low levels of Roundups glyphosate, which gives it weed-killing power,
when ingested from the food we eat are well below what has been determined
7

Restoring Heritage Grains

3
39

Durum

99

12
Spring
(excl. durum)

49
97

Insecticides

19

Winter

Fungicides
Herbicides

61
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Percent of planted acres

Pesticides applied to wheat planted acres, by type, 2012. Source: USDA, www.nass.usda
.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Chemical_Use/2012_Wheat_Highlights/

acceptable for daily human consumption.7 In the article The Truth about
Roundup and Wheat,8 Monsanto explains that their labels instructions for
glyphosate advise to use it two weeks prior to harvest so that the poison has
ample time to break down. Monsanto states that absolutely no poison can be
absorbed into the wheat kernel. This comes as little reassurance.

Does Modern Wheat Make Us Fat?

In recent days, as the winter lies heavy in my corner of Western
Massachusetts, I dance along with 1940s swing videos to keep moving
indoors on frozen days. It is remarkable how thin and lithe folks were not
so long ago. Why?
Green Revolution wheat has contributed to the global epidemic of
obesity. Close to 70 percent of all Americans are overweight. Obesity
worldwide has almost doubled to 34 percent in recent decades, according
to studies conducted by researchers at Harvard University.9 People may
8

On the Verge of Extinction

crave more calories because their food is less nutritious. Not only is the soil
depleted, but modern grains dwarfed root systems are unable to scavenge
and process organic nutrients. Modern processed wheat spikes our blood
sugar. Wheat gluten contains a unique carbohydrate called amylopectin-A,
which sends blood sugar soaring higher than table sugar or a candy bar.
Its high-glycemic carbohydrates stimulate our appetite with the druglike
by-products of gluten proteins. We get fat.
What we have for breakfast influences how our body responds for the
rest of the day. The type of toast you eat for breakfast affects how your body
metabolizes food at lunch. Modern bread, even whole wheat bread, may be
an obesogen, a food with a high glycemic index that raises your blood sugar
level, then crashes it down, resulting in food cravings. We get food cravings
despite our bellys being full because our system is out of balance from the
blood sugar spike. Appetite is stimulated, not for more fish or chicken, but
for quick carbs, more wheat, more candy, more soft drinks, more junk food.
Impulse control is under the influence of a food craving resulting from an
imbalanceafter each indulgence.

Adulteration, Convenience, and Profit

In the past two centuries not only has wheat undergone profound modification in its genetic makeup but the process of refining it into flour has borne
equally significant changes. These alterations have changed the very nature
of the bread we eat. If we want to embark on a revolution to transform the
nature of the loaf, it will require two comprehensive transformations. The
first, returning a wholesome process to the baking of bread, is well under
way by artisan bakers. But the second, changing and restoring the nature
of the grain itself, has barely begun. On one end of the continuum is my
sourdough einkorn sprout bread, grain from traditional fields, fresh-milled
daily, fermented, alive, handcrafted, and baked in a wood-burning oven.
On the other end of the continuum is the Wonder Bread found on supermarket shelves.
In the 1839 book The Good Housekeeper,10 Sarah Hale wrote:
Fresh ground flour makes the best and sweetest bread. If you live near
a mill, never have more than one or two bushels ground into flour at
a time. Much damaged flour, sour, musty, or left in the field too long
9

Restoring Heritage Grains

in wet weather, so the grain swells and is ruined, is often used by the
public bakers, particularly in scarce or bad seasons. The skill of the
baker and the use of certain ingredients (alum, ammonia, sulphate of
zinc, and even sulphate of copper have been used) will make this flour
into light, white bread. It is nearly tasteless, and not as healthy or
nutritious as bread made from the flour of good, sound wheat baked
at home without any mixture of correctives.
Hale warned homemakers to watch for ground stones, bones, and plaster of Paris added to flour to swell its bulk and weight and to whiten the
color. To test the purity of flour Hale recommended adding drops of lemon
juice or vinegar, which would cause flour that contains stone dust or plaster
of Paris to effervesce. When a handful of pure flour is squeezed tight, it
should keep the impression of the hand when the fist is opened, whereas
adulterated flour will crumble.
Hard, indigestible bran was not a problem in wheat until the introduction of the modern combine placed convenience over quality. Farmers have
known from the earliest days that the wheat plant should be harvested
about two weeks before full maturity, when it is still slightly green at the
top, then cured in stooks to dry down. Harvesting at full maturity results
in a hard bran that needs to be sifted out, and a less nutritious white flour.
Harvesting at the proper time gives a softer, digestible bran, richer flavor,
and higher nutrition.
Before the Fleischmann brothers established the first commercial yeast
factory in 1868, bakers either made their own sourdough starter or used
beer barm,11 the foam that rises on the top, or the sediments that fall to
the bottom, when brewing beer. Historically, barm starter is from the first
stage of making beer. Sprouted grain, known as malt, is gently simmered
in warm water, then allowed to cool. The enzymes from malts sprouting
process are harnessed to make the barm that rises the bread. Hale recommended that if beer is well brewed and kept in a clean cask, the settlings
are the best yeast.
Sourdough fermentation is too time-consuming for industrial bakers. It
takes only two minutes to produce air bubbles with ammonium chloride,
a chemical used in the manufacture of engine antifreeze, and whipped
with potassium bromate and potassium iodate to incorporate air bubbles.
10

On the Verge of Extinction

Potassium bromate is a chemical used in permanent hair wave products.
The more bubbles in a loaf of bread the less flour it contains and the more
profitable for the baker.
Whole-grain flour is a product best enjoyed fresh-milled. The vital
wheat germ and oils in flour will go rancid if left on the grocery shelves
unrefrigerated. How could there be a centralized wheat system if flour
needed to be fresh like a vegetable? In the late 1800s a milling method was
invented to overcome the problem of how to prevent flour from going rancid so that it could be distributed nationally. A sifting roller mill system was
designed that used grooved metal rolls to remove the germ and bran from
grain. Roller mills separate out the inner endosperm of white flour, leaving
a denuded, lifeless starch. The nutrient-rich wheat germ and outer bran
layer were fed to animals. The refined endosperm-only white flour with
a light, fluffy texture baked into bread whiter than people had ever seen.
Roller mills rapidly replaced stone mills throughout the United States.
To make the texture even lighter, a purified yeast isolate was combined
with refined sugar in the dough. In the early 1900s, cheap fats made from
hydrogenated vegetable oils were introduced to texturize the bread. Toxic
chemicals were used to whiten and preserve the flour. Unless marketed as
unbleached, white flour is bleached with chlorine dioxide gas that forms
dichlorostearic acid and methionine sulfoxide in the flour. It is known to
cause nervous system damage in humans.12 Supermarket white breads contain polyoxyethylene monostearate, a chemical that retains water so that
the bread stays moist. This chemical causes cancer in laboratory rats. In
Europe it is illegal to bleach flour.
White flour is vulnerable to fungal mold. Propionic acid, an antifungal ingredient used in athletes foot powder, is added to prevent mold.
Enriched white flour contains synthetic vitamins and minerals added
after the bread has been stripped of natural vitamins and minerals. Fiber
added refers to the addition of hard-to-digest vegetable fiber or synthetic
methyl cellulose.13 Read supermarket bread labels to see for yourself.

The Bread Revolution: Light-Imbued Grains

The second aspect of the bread revolution, changing the nature of the grains
themselves, is the heart of this book. How is it possible, in the context of the
dramatic increase of gluten-related illnesses, that so few people have connected
11

Restoring Heritage Grains

the industrial wheat plant with wheat-related allergies? Because few of us have
ever seen a heritage wheat plant or tasted sourdough heritage wheat bread.
Humankind evolved with staple foods nourished by photosynthesis,
the natural transformation of sunlight into nutrients. Heritage wheat has
at least 500 percent more leaf surface area than modern wheat, reaching a
majestic height averaging five feet. Greater surface area enables the photosynthetic activity that produces complex phytonutrients in the grains.
Heritage wheat evolved over millennia to efficiently transform sunlight
into nourishing food for humans through photosynthesis. Modern dwarf
wheats lack sufficient leaves for the full processes of photosynthesis. They
are less able to develop micronutrients and light-imbued proteins. Dwarfed
modern wheats not only absorb less light for the photosynthesis that
imparts fuller flavor, but their stunted roots have lost their evolutionary
capacity to process organic soil nutrients. Humankind coevolved with heritage grain proteins. Human digestive enzymes have not evolved to keep
pace with the high amounts of gluten in modern wheats. Sun-drenched, tall
heritage wheats produce vital, light-imbued phytonutrients.
Biodynamic farmers believe that hardened modern grains contribute
to hardened, materialistic thinking, whereas light-filled ancient grains
nourish the human organisms etheric energy, promoting greater health,
vitality, and well-being.
Try it yourself: Place einkorn grain under your tongue. It melts into a sustaining food. You can feel it. You can chew it without having to boil it first. It is
a living food. Its baker was the sun. Its oven, the field. Place a grain of modern
wheat under your tongue. It stays in your mouth, cold and hard as a stone. If
you can chew it without breaking a tooth, you will get something that is more
like bubblegum than food, since industrial breeders aim for high amounts of
gluten, which makes stretchy bubbles for light, fluffy white bread. In fact,
wheat breeders use the chew test in selecting plants to save for seed. The
wheats that make the best bubblegum are selected. Modern baking quality is
evaluated by loaf volume and gluten strength: bubbles and glue.
Nicolas Supiot, a paysanne-boulanger, an artisan farmer-baker in France,
explains:
In France, wheat is traditionally considered good for bread at an
11 percent gluten protein. It is hard to believe for me, but the gluten
12

On the Verge of Extinction

strength of wheat today is approximately four times what it was 100
years ago! Industrial baking machines harshly beat dough requiring
breeders to develop high gluten wheats to retain sufficient loaf volume after a destructive, intensive machine kneading.14
Heritage wheats complex traits that enhance flavor and nutrition are the
very qualities that have been bred out of the modern high-yield wheats. This
is why renowned French artisan bakers such as Nicolas and Jean Francois
Berthelot15 prefer heritage wheats superior flavor and baking qualities.
Traditional artisan bakers ferment and knead by gently folding, then they let
the dough rest over time to naturally knit together the delicate gluten strands.

What Is Gluten?
Legend attributes the discovery of gluten to Buddhist monks who observed
that when bread dough was immersed in water, the starchy flour washed
away, leaving an elastic glob of gluten. This food, known as seitan, is a
high-protein fare enjoyed through the centuries by monks.
Gluten is the protein-rich molecular matrix that transforms a mixture
of flour and water into an elastic, responsive dough.16As dough rises due to
the air bubbles generated by yeast microorganisms, gluten holds the dough
together, giving bread its shape and fluffy, crumbly texture. Gluten consists
of gliadin and glutenin. Gliadin and glutenin differ in the size and weight
of their molecules. Modern bread wheat has been bred for a higher proportion of high-molecular-weight glutenin, which imparts elastic dough
strength. Wheat landraces that have not been industrially bred have less
glutenin, and therefore a more fragile gluten structure. It is not exactly the
same as having less gluten. Most have very high gluten content. Einkorns
delicate gluten has a different quality from all other wheats because it is the
only grain classified as a wheat that did not evolve from wild emmer wheat
(Triticum dicoccoides).
How is gluten developed?
Physical kneading strengthens gluten adhesion by stretching and folding
for a cross-linked, cohesive mass with greater bonding. The dough starts
out lumpy and gradually bonds smoothly together with spring-back if
poked. When gluten is well developed, the dough will stretch into a paperthin film without breaking.
13

Restoring Heritage Grains

Chemical dough enhancers strengthen gluten adhesion with oxidants
and reductants, as done in supermarket-scale bakeries. With the chemical
enhancers, an intensive, short period of mixing develops the dough almost
instantly! Modern white wheat flour is aged or brominated to oxidize the
flour to help form gluten bonds and bleach out the yellow carotenoid pigments. Chemical dough enhancers also include natural conditioners like
ascorbic acid (vitamin C) that facilitate the gluten reaction. Adding lecithin
emulsifies the fats in the bread and retains moisture. Bean flour incorporates
gluten-enhancing oxidants. Artisan bakers may add fava bean or soybean
flour, which has lipoxygenase that oxidizes flour, to enhance gluten.
Biological fermentation develops gluten over time. A long fermentation
period, called the sponge stage, not only strengthens the gluten bonds but
encourages microbes to digest the flour into a form with greater available
nutrition and flavor. Slow fermentation combined with physical kneading
and folding dramatically enhances the gluten adhesion, depth of flavor,
nutrition, and texture of bread.

Skinny Bread: Sourdough Einkorn

Bread Satisfies Longer
Einkorn sourdough breads combine the gluten-safe quality of this ancient
grain with the enlivening action of fermentation to produce a flavorful,
light bread with the lowest glycemic index of all. Einkorn has the safest,
easy-to-digest gluten of all wheat species. Einkorn expresses the lowest
celiac diseasecausing components (known as epitopes) of all wheat species. After eight individuals with celiac disease consumed gliadin extracted
from einkorn, their intestinal biopsies confirmed no negative reaction. In a
rare in vivo study, twelve celiac patients experienced no difference in gastrointestinal complaints after twenty-eight days consuming either 2.5 grams
of rice or einkorn daily.17 That said, we advise anyone with gluten allergies
to consult with your doctor to test if einkorn is safe for you. If you have
celiac disease, beware; einkorn contains gluten.
Traditional sourdough einkorn bread is not only easier to digest but
promotes a lower, steady-release blood sugar level that satisfies longer. The
benefits of sourdough einkorn bread are highlighted in a study conducted
by Danish scientists who tested if sourdough einkorn bread reduces the
insulin and glucose responses compared to the responses to bread made
14

On the Verge of Extinction

Let Us Look Deeper

What are the inner effects of redesigning humankinds staple food
for industrial convenience? Why has gluten become toxic to more
people today? Wheat bread itself has sustained robust traditional
peoples from the Middle East to Europe for millennia. What is the
problem now?
According to Dr. Karl-Josef Mueller, director of Biodynamic
Cereal Breeding in Darzau, Germany,
Gluten enables the absorption of wheat protein for human
nutrition. If a chemical nitrogen-based protein is directly
absorbed, the person will become ill. The protein is hardened
and lacks a biological transformation. Protein must be
transformed from a foreign substance that is unprocessed by
biological activity into a human-available substance that is
processed by beneficial bacteria. The metabolism starts with
the bacteria in active plant roots and completes in the human
digestive system bacteria. Gluten proteins have to be biologically broken down and then reconstructed inside the human
body. It may never be possible to heal celiac disease, even with
einkorn. But it may be possible to avoid getting an allergy in
the first place with wheats better suited for human nutrition.
We do not need hardening. We need an opening and widening
of our senses, a kind of devotion in our feelings towards the
world and its beings. When modern wheat and human inner
needs are now in opposition, an incompatibility arises. The
alarming rise in gluten allergies reflects this.18

with modern wheat. They documented that sourdough einkorn whole

grain bread significantly lowered blood sugar levels compared to conventional yeasted modern bread that raised blood sugar levels.19
There are precious other forgotten wheat species that have yet to be
restored that share the rich flavor, nutrition, robust growth habits, and
15

Restoring Heritage Grains

gluten-safe qualities of einkorn. These are the very grains rejected by the
modern industrial wheat system because they have not been bred with high
levels of indigestible gluten for mass-produced breads.

Restoring Wheat Terroir

Terroir, a French word meaning taste of the land, expresses how the unique
climate and soil of a farm imparts distinctive qualities to foods such as
French wine, artisan Vermont cheese, or the rich flavor of coffee grown in
its ancestral homeland of Ethiopia. Terroir is the dynamic interaction of
the environment, the land, the seeds history, the farmer, cheesemaker, or
brewer that give an artisan product its signature quality and taste.
Can mass-produced modern wheat bread from who-knows-where have
terroir? It cannot. The baking industry requires uniform flour blends for
mass-produced identical breads all in a row. The land is an endless field to
the horizon. The farmers are invisible. Flavor is forgotten.
An understanding of terroir can give special meaning to the unique
history, farmer, and taste of the land. Is the soil fertilized by synthetic
chemicals, or is it enriched with the vitality of biological relationships? The
quality of the fertilizer is directly transferred to protein and the flavor in
the grain. What is the historic tale told by the seed in the farmers hands?
The ultimate expression of grain terroir and flour quality is evoked by the
quality of the mill and the unique baking style of an artisan baker. As we
explore the biodiversity and heritage of landrace wheat, the potential to
reinvigorate wheat terroir can come alive in our hands, farms, and bakeries
and on our tables.

16