The Cereal Grain Café

How do we save the world?  Does it really need saving?  What problems do we need to address?  What role do food and agriculture play?  And, where do we begin?In this episode I have a conversation with one of my classes at Iowa State.  This Honors course is focused on answering these questions, using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for discussion.  As you will see, the situation is different in every country.If you are interested in the SDGs, more information can be found at the UN website. Thank you  ISU students for being willing to share your thoughts.  Let's all try to do our part to make the future better.Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

As corn and soybean harvest progresses in the USA (almost all of the wheat crop has already been harvested), we have to consider grain quality and preservation.  Drying and aeration is important due to the potential of mold and insect infestation.  This episode is part 2 of a mini-series on preservation.  Our guest today is Dr. Graham Thorpe.  He has worked for many years to improve moisture control of grain in storage.  In fact, he even contributed a chapter to my recent book.  If you are interested, his chapter on alternative and emerging storage technologies can be found here. More about Graham and is work can be found at his faculty website at Victoria University and at the Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities. He can be contacted at graham.thorpe@vu.edu.au.  Thank you, Graham, for a great conversation about grain storage! Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Corn and soybean harvest has begun in central Iowa.  As harvest progresses, make sure to watch out for farm equipment during your commute each day.  In addition to physical safety, it is important to consider grain quality and preservation.  Here in the U.S. we control quality by drying and aeration of the grain.  Our guest today is Dr. Ken Hellevang.  He has worked for many years to improve moisture control of grain in storage.  In fact, he even contributed a chapter on grain aeration to my recent book.  If you are interested, his chapter on grain aeration can be found here.More about Ken and is work can be found at his faculty website at North Dakota State University.He can be contacted at kenneth.hellevang@ndsu.edu.  Thank you, Ken for a great conversation!Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Hopefully everyone is staying safe out there!  The grain industry can be a dangerous place to work!  Whether you are working with grain storage, drying, handling, or processing, there are always things that can go wrong.  On this week’s episode, we continue the theme of safety in the grain industry.  It is a privilege to have as our guest Dr. Carol Jones from Oklahoma State University.  She works to improve safety in the grain industry, and has an extensive background in the grain and agriculture sectors.  She has worked for many years to make these safer places to work.  In fact, she even contributed two chapters on these topics to my recent book.  If you are interested, her chapter on dust control can be found here.Her chapter on fumigation can be found here.More about Carol and her work can be found at her faculty website at Oklahoma State University as well as her LinkedIn page:She can be contacted at jcarol@okstate.edu.  Thank you, Carol for a great conversation!Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Have you ever slipped on the ice?  Or twisted your ankle?  What about being engulfed in grain?  Working in the grain industry can be dangerous, even fatal.  Whether we consider what happens on the farm or at the factory, safety is critical.  And agriculture is one of the most dangerous professions to work in.  Thankfully there are people working to improve the safety of these systems.  Today’s guest is Dr. Gretchen Mosher from Iowa State University.  She works to improve safety, human interactions, and decision-making processes in the grain and feed industries.  In fact, she even contributed a chapter on this topic to my recent book.  If you are interested, it can be found here. More about Gretchen and her work can be found at her faculty website at Iowa State University.   She can be contacted at gamosher@iastate.edu.  Thank you, Gretchen for a great conversation! Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Have you noticed that the word “sustainability” has been used a lot in recent years?  What about “climate smart” or “regenerative agriculture”?  What do these actually mean?  Actually, the agriculture and food industries have been working on these topics for decades, even though we may not have been using these specific words.  These topics are becoming more important to consumers, companies, and even government policy makers.  Today’s guest is Lara Moody from IFEEDER, which is an organization that aims to improve the sustainability of livestock feed and feed ingredient manufacturers.  Their efforts include a variety of grain-based ingredients.  More about Lara and IFEEDER can be found at their website:  www.ifeeder.org.  Lara can be contacted at ifeeder@ifeeder.org.  Thank you Lara for a great conversation!Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Are you a fan of Game of Thrones?  Did you know that it was filmed in Croatia?  When I envision Croatia, I think about agriculture, farming, and landscapes.  But I’m a big fan of cereal grains, as many of you know.  Join me for a conversation with my friends Dr. Ana Matin and Dr. Mateja Grubor, who are from the University of Zagreb.  We discuss research and teaching of agricultural and food systems.  And we also sample some of the local pelinkovac (if you haven’t tried this drink, you really should).  You can learn about their teaching and research at their university webpages.If you are interested in learning more about grain production in Croatia, here is a report from the USDA.Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.Zivjeli!

Over the past year, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about grains, their history, their processing, and their use.  But, we have not yet spent time talking about grain production.  We need to talk about these aspects.So, in today’s episode we will spend time talking about the importance of soil to crop production.  Our guest is Dr. Amber Anderson from Iowa State University.  She is a faculty member in the Department of Agronomy, is part of the Sustainable Agriculture Program, as well as Global Resource Systems.More about Dr. Anderson can be found at her ISU faculty webpage:  https://www.susag.iastate.edu/people/amber-anderson-0 Are potatoes really grains or not?  It will be interesting to learn what lawmakers decide!!  For the latest information and industry stories about cereal grains, check out the Cereals and Grains Association’s webpage, especially their InGRAINed Newsletter at https://www.cerealsgrains.org/  Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

How did you start your day?  Did you eat breakfast?If so, what did you eat?  Do you ever eat breakfast cereal?Personally, I eat cereal any time of day – it is a perfect snack for me!Breakfast cereal has a long and suprising history.  Today’s guest is Dr. Kathryn Dolan, who has recently published Breakfast Cereal – A Global History.  You can find her book at Reaktion Books.  More about her can be found at her faculty webpage at Missouri S&T University.Grab a bowl and listen in!For the latest information and industry stories about cereal grains, check out the Cereals and Grains Association’s webpage, especially their InGRAINed Newsletter.Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Did you know that Russia and the U.S.  have been competing to feed the world as far back as the late 1700s?Today's guest is Dr. Scott Reynolds Nelson, who's book Oceans of Grain describes how the flow of wheat has been a maker or breaker of empires since ancient times.   More about him can be found on his University of Georgia faculty webpage.If you would like an update on the grain situation in Ukraine and Russia, the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service has published an overview of the 2023/24 wheat harvest.Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Whole grains?  Organic foods?  Recipes?  History?This week we talk with Marlene Bumgarner about all of these topics.  She is the author of The New Book of Whole Grains (and several other books as well) in which she weaves a tapestry of deliciousness and practicality.  I highly recommend checking out her books and blog.  She has had a fascinating journey, one which I think you will enjoy learning about!Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Have you ever eaten Pharoah's Bread (I found this in Paris, of all places!)?  Or heard of King Tut Wheat?  In this episode we talk to Dr. Liz Carlisle about her journey into the world of Kamut - an ancient Egyptian wheat, and her path into deeper understandings of the intersections between humans and agriculture.   She is an Associate Professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, where she teaches and conducts research on transitions to more sustainable approaches to agriculture.  More information can be found at her faculty webpage as well as her personal webpage.Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Welcome to the first episode of Season 2!  Have you ever wondered what students think about the things that they are learning?  I decided it was time to hear their thoughts.  Join me as we discuss what we have been learning in a graduate course devoted to Agroecosystems Analysis, the current state of farming and grain production, and the future of agriculture.  I think you will find our discussions wide-ranging and fascinating.  The future is in good hands with these emerging leaders!Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Have you eaten corn recently?  Have you filled your car with ethanol this week?  How did the simple grass teosinte evolve to become corn, one of the most important cereal grains on the planet?  Join me for our last interview of 2023 as we talk to Professor Michael Blake from the University of British Columbia to learn about the origins and spread of maize.  We discuss the history, anthropology, and science of corn, all of which he writes about in his book Maize for the Gods.  For more information about him and his research, check out his faculty webpage.  If you are interested in the genetics of maize evolution, I also recommend one of his papers in the journal Science: Genomic estimation of complex traits reveals ancient maize adaptation to temperate North AmericaOur music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

How long have humans been storing grain?  If you listened to the last episode you may recall that it has been at least 11,000 years.  This episode is the second element of a duet which is focused on history.  It was an honor to talk with Dr. Ian Kuijt from the University of Notre Dame about his excavation work in Jordan, archaeology, as well as other aspects of history.  More about his work can be found at his Academia page and his University of Notre Dame webpage.  There you can his published works and his contact information.  If digging into history and archaeology is of interest, I highly recommend the following papers:Evidence for food storage and predomestication granaries 11,000 years ago in the Jordan Valley (by Kuijt and Finlayson, 2009)Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan (by Arranz-Otaegul et al., 2018) Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

The ways that we do things today have been informed by the ways that humans have done them throughout our history.  How long have humans been cultivating, harvesting, storing, and eating grain?  Can you believe that the archaeological record shows that humans have been storing and processing cereals for more than 11,000 years?  It was an honor to talk about grain archaeology with Dr. Bill Finlayson from Oxford University about the Agricultural Revolution and other related topics.  More about his work can be found at his Academia page and his Oxford University webpage.  There you can his published works and contact information.In our next episode, we will continue our discussion about the archaeology and history of cereals.  We will talk with Dr. Ian Kuijt, one of Dr. Finlayson’s colleagues and fellow archaeologists.  Hopefully you enjoy this two-part series and find it enlightening.Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Have you ever driven through the countryside and seen large steel or concrete structures in the distance?  Alas, they are probably not castles.  Although some people do refer to these the "castles of the prairies".  They are likely grain storage elevators. These facilities play a critical role in the cereal grain supply chain, although most people are not aware of their functions. Today's guest is William J. Brown, who is the author of "American Colossus".  This is the first book written about the history of grain elevators (at least what I have been able to find), and it tells an intriguing story that parallels that of the development of modern America.  More about his books can be found on his book publishing site Colossus Books, or at Amazon.Most of the published literature does not discuss the history of grain elevators themselves, rather their operations and efficiencies.  If you are interested in learning more about the design and operation of grain elevators, search the resources available at the Grain Elevator and Processing Society, the Cereals and Grains Association, and the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.  They have many publications and articles that you will find informative and useful.  History, however, is not widely available, which is why today's interview is so fascinating!Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Rashid Suleiman is a Lecturer and Head of the Department of Food Science and Agroprocessing at Sokoine University of Agriculture where he is responsible for leading the department, and teaching food science and biological systems subjects. He serves as a chairperson of Agriculture and Food Standards Division Committee (AFDC) of Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) which oversees over 29 different Agriculture and Food Technical Committees. Dr. Suleiman is a chairperson of National Codex Committee and a member of several academic, professional and scholarly societies.Dr. Suleiman’s research program focuses on food safety, food quality management, new product development and post-harvest management applied to grain, and fruits and vegetables. Projects involve post-harvest loss reduction and prevention, food security, food systems, mycotoxins, value-added products and process, grain storage and stored products protection, extrusion technology, new product development and formulation, techno-economic analysis and food packaging.Dr. Suleiman’s outreach program focuses on crop post-harvest handling, storage, processing and loss prevention, mycotoxin control, nutrition feeding programs, and food and nutrition security.  More about Rashid, his work, and his department can be found on his website.If you are interested in learning more about the current state of global food security, some good resources can be found in articles from the World Bank, as well as the World Economic Forum.Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Today’s guest was Dr. Julia Pezzali.  We discussed her work on pet food nutrition as well as a variety of other topics.  She is doing some really interesting work on use of cereal grains in pet foods.  More information can be found about Dr. Pezzali and her work at her faculty webpage at Iowa State University.You can find her publications at her Research Gate page.I have recently found an interesting paper that discusses cereal grains and coproducts in terms of nutrient content for use in pet foods:  “Compositional Analysis of Whole Grains, Processed Grains, Grain Co-Products, and Other Carbohydrate Sources with Applicability to Pet Animal Nutrition”, which is free to download at MDPI.Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.

Today’s guest was Dr. Thomas Sinclair, and we discussed his book “Bread, Beer, and the Seeds of Change: Agriculture’s Imprint on World History”.  It is a fascinating journey through the history of grains, foods, and humans.  I highly recommend it.  More information can be found about Professor Sinclair and his work at his faculty webpage at North Carolina State University.Information about this book can be found at CABI’s website.CABI has a variety of publications about agriculture, and it has a global reach.  They work to help farmers and governments protect livelihoods and the environment, improve food safety and people’s lives.  They have outreach and training programs, as well as publishing platforms for knowledge transfer to developing countries.  More can be found at their website.If you are interested in this subject, I have recently found another interesting paper that discusses experimental archaeology:  “Reinvigorating Modern Breadmaking Based on Ancient Practices and Plant Ingredients, with Implementation of a Physicochemical Approach”, which is free to download at MDPI.Our music is Inspiring Cinematic Asia by Lexin Music, which is available at Pixabay.