Last week the Mother Nature Network publishedan essay in praise of wheat. Wheat isn’t sexy, noted the article. There are no heirloom varieties. It’s not brightly colored or wild-caught or free-range. Foodies don’t go bananas over wheat. But today, wheat is grown on more land area worldwide than any other food crop.
This humble plant that produces a dry, one-seeded kernel has one spectacular property: It can be ground into flour. And in fact, unlocking wheat’s secret is one of the key reasons why people began living in communities during the Stone Age. Once humans discovered they could use rocks to grind grains of wheat to make flour, there was no turning back.
Granaries were built, and temples and marketplaces. Cities began to form. And soon enough, we were all scooting around in cars and talking on cell phones. So next time you pass a wheat field, tip your hat to the grain that built the world.
