The Politics of Produce · Episode 11 of 17 · 24 min
Bread and Power: Wheat and the Politics of Grain
Wheat is the grain that feeds cities and topples governments. The episode runs from the Populist revolt of the 1890s through the Dust Bowl and the birth of federal farm policy to grain as statecraft: Food for Peace, the 1972 grain deal, and the price spikes behind the 2008 unrest and the 2022 Black Sea grain crisis.
Who's who
- William Jennings BryanPopulist-backed Democrat whose 1896 Cross of Gold speech championed indebted farmers
- William McKinley+1 more episodedefeated Bryan in the 1896 presidential election
- Henry A. WallaceAgriculture Secretary behind the ever-normal granary
- Roscoe FilburnOhio farmer in Wickard v. Filburn (1942)
- Jimmy Carter+12 more episodesimposed the 1980 grain embargo on the USSR
Where it happens
- Great Plains+2 more episodeshomesteaded region that became the world's breadbasket
- Black Seacorridor for Ukrainian and Russian wheat exports
- Istanbul, Turkeywhere the 2022 Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed
Timeline
- 1862Homestead Act opens the Plains to settlers
- 1892People's Party forms and issues the Omaha Platform
- 1933Agricultural Adjustment Act creates the AAA
- 1942Wickard v. Filburn upholds federal wheat quotas
- 1954PL-480 makes surplus grain an arm of foreign policy
- July 22, 2022Black Sea Grain Initiative signed in Istanbul
Still debated
Analysts disagree on whether wheat prices drove the Arab Spring or were one pressure among many. Whether food is a legitimate weapon of statecraft is also contested, since the 1980 embargo mostly punished American farmers.
← PreviousThe Golden Leaf: Tobacco, the First Cash CropNext →Blood and Wine: Grapes, Delano, and a Movement
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