From bread to cake: a global history of Pacific Northwest wheat during the Cold War

Authors: Morris, Craig; BOLINGBROKE, DAVID - Washington State University

Submitted to: Agricultural History
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/15/2021
Publication Date: 9/26/2022
Citation: Morris, C.F., Bolingbroke, D.C. 2022. From bread to cake: a global history of Pacific Northwest wheat during the Cold War. Agricultural History. 96:417-443. https://doi.org/10.1215/00021482-9825320.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/00021482-9825320

Interpretive Summary: This article expands the wheat historiography to combine regional and global scales to better understand how Pacific Northwest wheat growers and marketers situated themselves within the global context of the Cold War. This approach allows us to show how WWA marketers sought to promote their surplus wheat while believing it helped overseas consumers, and in so doing, connected distant places and peoples. These wheat proponents engaged in conversations that tied wheat farming in one region of the nation to massive US-led global endeavors driven by a combination of self-interest, hubris, and good will. Experts told them wheat could help prevent devastating tragedies like malnutrition and make them a profit. Committed to expanding their product’s presence, Pacific Northwest wheat marketers formed WWA and sent employees to distant locations like Karachi, Tokyo, and Manilla where they established relationships with (and often helped build) the wheat and flour industries in those countries. Thus, wheat connected the Pacific Northwest with Asia and resulted in new interactions between growers, marketers, bakers, and consumers on both sides of the Pacific.

Technical Abstract: This article expands the wheat historiography to combine regional and global scales to better understand how Pacific Northwest wheat growers and marketers situated themselves within the global context of the Cold War. This approach allows us to show how WWA marketers sought to promote their surplus wheat while believing it helped overseas consumers, and in so doing, connected distant places and peoples. These wheat proponents engaged in conversations that tied wheat farming in one region of the nation to massive US-led global endeavors driven by a combination of self-interest, hubris, and good will. Experts told them wheat could help prevent devastating tragedies like malnutrition and make them a profit. Committed to expanding their product’s presence, Pacific Northwest wheat marketers formed WWA and sent employees to distant locations like Karachi, Tokyo, and Manilla where they established relationships with (and often helped build) the wheat and flour industries in those countries. Thus, wheat connected the Pacific Northwest with Asia and resulted in new interactions between growers, marketers, bakers, and consumers on both sides of the Pacific.