SET: The Price of Wheat

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Steven Hesch, assistant brewer at the North by Northwest Restaurant and Brewery, leans against one of the eight giant cylinders that fill the restaurant’s brewing cage. The rising price of wheat and other grains has forced the brewer to both raise prices and cut margins. According to Brewmaster Donald Thompson, their primary grain supplier has also been fraught with shortages and has stopped accepting new customers.

Part of an article on the rising cost of wheat and its impact on college students; in the original article, the captions were cut to about ten words each. Hurray for the internet!

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Arthur Leighton tosses pizza dough at the Slices and Ices. Like many other restaurants and bakeries, the off-campus eatery has raised prices to compensate for the increase in materials expenditures.

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Ben Willcott, co-owner and baker at Texas French Bread, stands by a pallet of high-gluten flour, which he said has more than doubled in price this year from $12 to $25 a bag; a magnitude of change that he had never before experienced. “Imagine if this had happened to the price of cars,” he said.

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Baker Ben Willcott empties a bag of flour into a mixer at Texas French Bread. Willcott is making ciabatta bread with high-gluten, high-protein wheat, “which is the flour that has gotten really expensive,” he says.

The rapid rise in food prices is probably the most important news item that most people don’t care about. It’s unprecedented, huge, most likely permanent, and below the discretionary spending radar of many first-worlders. Hatians are eating clay, food riots are destabilizing countries, and to quote the Economist, “fill up an SUV’s fuel tank with ethanol and you have used enough maize to feed a person for a year.” Biodiesel subsidies are not the only contributor of course, or even the most important, but it’s a lot more controllable than curbing demand for meat in Asia and a good example of the different way this crisis affects the rich and the poor. Also, corn biodiesel takes more energy to produce than it releases.

Feel free to write your representative.

Ben Willcott, co-owner and baker at Texas French Bread, stands by a pallet of high-gluten flour, which he said has more than doubled in price this year from $12 to $25 a bag;
Baker Ben Willcott empties a bag of flour into a mixer at Texas French Bread. Willcott is making ciabatta bread with high-gluten, high-protein wheat, "which is the flour that has gotten really expensive," he says.
Ben Willcott tosses dough into a bin.
Aurthur Leighton tosses pizza dough at the Slices and Ices. Like many other restaurants and bakeries, the off-campus eatery has raised prices to compensate for the increase in materials expenditures.
Slices and Ices
Steven Hesch, assistant brewer at the North by Northwest Restaurant and Brewery, leans against one of the eight giant cylinders that fill the restaurant's brewing cage.
The brewmaster at North by Northwest
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Published:
04.22.08 / 1am
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