Federal subsidies

C. Jarrett Dieterle | 6.15.2024 7:00 AM

The renowned whiskey writer Clay Risen recently recounted in The New York Times how nal t'eel, a Mexican corn varietal grown on the Yucatán Peninsula for more than 4,000 years, was saved when a local craft distillery started making whiskey with it. While a gripping and inspiring tale on its own, the resurgence of nal t'eel is also part of a much larger story arc. Over the last decade, the heritage whiskey movement has exploded—part of an even larger ancient and heirloom grain revival.

While there is disagreement on what constitutes an "heirloom" or "heritage" grain—some point to grains developed prior to World War II whereas others define them as varietals brought to the New World by immigrants—they have become catch-all terms for grains that have not undergone significant genetic modification regardless of their age. The results range from whiskey made with Jimmy Red Corn to an artisanal bakery's millet-and-sorghum sourdough loaf.

It's not just hipsters, foodies, and the health-conscious who are swapping their bleached flour for stone-ground buckwheat. The world's ancient grain market is projected to grow at a 37 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching $10 billion by 2032. As Sarah Herrington, a nutritionist at Brio-Medical, summarized it: "We're seeing a return to the traditional, over the conventional."

Yet "the conventional" is growing, not shrinking. Since the early 1990s, the acreage planted in the basic "big four" crops—corn, soybeans, wheat, and cotton—has expanded. If........

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