Wheat: Modern Wheat

Wheat has many uses in America, and it is found in more foods than any other cereal grain. There are thousands of varieties of bread on the market and tens of thousands of different types of rolls, buns, crackers, cookies, biscuits, and other baked goods. Wheat flour is also used in pasta, noodles, packaged goods, sauces, canned goods, frozen foods, and many other products.

Wheat is one of the most widely produced and consumed cereal grains in the world. The United States has been consistently the largest exporter of wheat for decades. About 60 million acres of wheat are harvested each year in the United States. In 2011 America produced 2,077,000 billion bushels of wheat, of which about half were exported. America’s wheat belt extends north from Texas through Oklahoma and Kansas, which is the largest producer, and from eastern Washington to central Montana.