Toast
Forever immortalized in song as our amber waves of grain, wheat in the United States faces agricultural limbo as farmers become increasingly discouraged by the high input costs of growing wheat and the low prices they fetch for their product at harvest. Without money to do so, wheat farmers are unable to invest or try out new methodologies that could increase the sustainability or efficiency of their way of farming.
Toast (Bread) Bio
- Type: Grain
- Country of Origin: Egypt – 12th Century BC
- Energy Use Factor: Medium to High
- Source Location: Baltimore (Wheat – Texas) – Produced all over the US & World.
Sustainability Issues
- Production efficiencies lag significantly behind other crops.
- Acreage used to grow wheat in United States & Canada continues to decline.
- Low prices for wheat prevent farmers to invest in new sustainable or more efficient farming methods.
Where did Phil’s toast actually come from?
Wheat is mainly grown in the Great Plains region of the United States. We started our wheat-to-toast journey at the Bledsoe Farm in Whitesboro, TX that grows the grain. Our cameras then traveled to a smaller, local grain elevator for the farming communities in Arcadia, IL, then journeyed on to a large grain elevator in Saginaw, TX which is attached to ConAgra’s large-scale flour mill. From there, we followed the flour to Schmidt’s Bakery in Baltimore, MD, where the wheat is turned to bread before delivery to Café Hon.
Our first stop was at Bledsoe Farm in Whitesboro, TX. From there we visited a local grain elevator in Arcardia, IL. We followed the wheat-to-bread process to a large grain elevator in Saginaw, TX, which is attached to Conagra Mill where the wheat is made into flour. We then traveled to Baltimore, MD to film the bread-making process at Schmidt Bakery, the bakery that also supplies Café Hon with their toast material.
View Wheat Filming and Cafe Hon Source Locations in a larger map
Image Source: Wikipedia
