Wheat Demand: Why Bread Needs Defending - WOYM 417
The Official Podcast for Kansas Wheat
Hosted by Aaron Harries
For more than 100 years, Sosland Publishing has watched wheat move from the farm through flour mills, bakeries and ultimately onto consumers’ plates. That history gives Josh Sosland, president of Sosland Publishing Company and editor of Milling & Baking News, a unique perspective on one of the wheat industry’s most important challenges: Americans are eating less bread, and history suggests the industry cannot expect that trend to reverse on its own. Sosland joins Aaron Harries and Justin Gilpin to look at how the industry reached this point and why “business as usual” may no longer be enough.
The discussion moves from the unsuccessful effort to establish a Bread Basket Checkoff to today’s concerns surrounding grain-food nutrition, GLP-1 medications, ultra-processed food messaging and the broader consumer conversation around bread. Sosland believes organizations such as the Grain Foods Foundation are doing important work to counter misinformation with research. But he sees another challenge that may be even more difficult: facts can win an argument without necessarily changing what people buy. Rebuilding demand, he argues, also requires an emotional connection that reminds consumers why bread, pizza, baguettes and other wheat foods remain enjoyable, familiar and valuable parts of everyday life.
The conversation ultimately reaches the farm gate. For decades, U.S. wheat promotion has placed significant emphasis on increasing export demand, while domestic use was often treated as relatively stable. Gilpin explains why that strategy made sense historically, but both he and Sosland question whether the changing marketplace requires a new balance. As millers seek specific varieties, management practices and quality characteristics, producers may find additional opportunities to build value through domestic relationships while the broader industry works to protect demand both at home and overseas.