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Growing goodness

MSU and Triscuit partner to put wheat from Michigan family farms on shelves nationwide

By: Emilie Lorditch
The next time you bite into a Triscuit cracker, you may be tasting a wheat variety developed by Michigan State University researchers and grown by one of a thousand family farms in Michigan’s Thumb region. 
 
In fact, all of the wheat shredded for Triscuit crackers comes from this region.

 

The team of researchers from MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources developed one of the wheat varieties grown for Triscuit crackers in a partnership with Triscuit’s parent company, Mondelēz International. 

 

MSU’s longstanding agricultural expertise Is the key ingredient to the partnership’s success. 

 

“We developed a variety of soft white winter wheat some of the Michigan farmers are using as part of their agreement with Mondelēz,” says Eric Olson, assistant professor and wheat breeder in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences. “MSU’s wheat variety has an excellent flour yield and produces desirable properties like strong gluten that makes a crispy cracker.”

As part of the agreement between Mondelēz and Michigan farmers, the farmers agree to grow wheat — MSU’s and other varieties — and record their crop data. The data includes everything from the seed variety planted, when and how far apart the seeds were planted from one another, how much water and fertilizer was used during the growing season, when the wheat was harvested and how much the crop yielded. Once this data is collected, it is shared with John Whims and Steven Miller, both assistant professors in MSU’s Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Economics, who analyze the data and summarize the findings.

 

Whims and Miller’s analysis not only helps Mondelēz International but also Michigan farmers — from crop to cracker.

 

“This project is designed to evaluate efficiencies in growing soft white winter wheat as the primary input into Triscuit-brand snacks,” says Miller, director of MSU’s Center for Economic Analysis. “We are starting our seventh year, and this last year was the biggest year with the most farms participating in the program ever.”

 

After the harvest, all the participating Michigan farmers receive a data sheet that shows how their farm’s crop performed compared to other fields in the program. 

“The Michigan growers that we work with have been good stewards of the environment and this is reflected in the data we are collecting,” says Whims.

These data reports are also helpful for Mondelēz International.

"There is increasing interest from companies about environmentally responsible agriculture practices," says Dennis Pennington, wheat Extension specialist in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences. "Mondelēz is interested in learning how farming practices impact the carbon footprint of products they manufacture." 

 




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