As a food crop essential to the making of bread, pastry, and pasta, wheat products are eaten by many people at every meal. Wheat products are valued for their taste and for their nutritional benefit. (See also agriculture; breakfast cereal; food and nutrition.)
Wheat is one of the oldest cereal crops. It was cultivated as long as 9,000 years ago in the Euphrates Valley of the Middle East. Egyptian pharaohs were buried with an ancient variety of wheat to help nourish them on their voyage into the afterlife.
Wheat was also harvested by the ancient Greeks and Romans. It spread from its place of origin into Central Europe and into China, where it has been grown for perhaps 5,000 years. Wheat was brought to North America after the discovery of the New World, but corn remained the major crop of the early settlers. After winter-hardy varieties of wheat were brought to the Great Plains in the 1800s, acreage grew rapidly.
In 2010 more than 650 million metric tons of wheat were produced. The world’s largest producer in that year was China, with an estimated annual yield of about 115 million metric tons. Other leading producers were India, the United States, Russia, and the countries of the European Union. Wheat is a major crop throughout the United States, except in Alaska, Hawaii, and the New England states.
Wheat is easily handled and stored. The wheat berry is small and has high food value. Stored wheat is a highly concentrated form of food. Five bushels of wheat, when processed, will produce more than a barrel of flour. Wheat keeps so well that it can be shipped around the world or stored for years.
Wheat is called a grain. A grain is a member of the grass family Gramineae that yields a starchy seed suitable for food. Other grains are barley, corn, millet, oats, rice, and sorghum.
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