The Washington State University Breadlab would like to set the record straight on a common assumption.
“The first thing you need to know about us,” says an introduction on the Breadlab website, “is that we are not a bakery.”
It’s true. The professors and research students at WSU place heavy emphasis on the “lab” in Breadlab, because they’re doing more than simply baking bread.
They are revolutionizing food on a grand scale by engineering new grains, growing and harvesting crops, and analyzing their yields on an agricultural, economic, and nutritional basis.
But, yes, technically — they do also bake bread.
Since 1998, the scientists at WSU have been breeding wheat crops with resiliency in mind.
Their first wheat variety, a soft white winter wheat, was named “Edwin” after Dr. Edwin Donaldson, a WSU wheat breeder who dedicated his career to improving crop options for low rainfall areas throughout the state of Washington.
In the decades since, they’ve continued tweaking and perfecting the “recipe” for their grains, with wheat for different seasons and regional climates.
That work became even more urgent as the climate crisis worsened.
According to the United States Geological Survey, droughts occur when dry conditions persist and rainfall is unevenly distributed. And the United States is historically susceptible to drought.
In 2012, the country faced an extreme drought that affected 81% of the contiguous United States — a drought that was so severe it rivaled the Great Depression.
Today, rising temperatures prime the country for droughts that are more extreme, both in longevity and intensity.
In August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture invested $400 million into 18 irrigation districts to address widespread drought.
“Agricultural producers are the backbone of rural communities across the West and many of them are struggling under prolonged drought conditions,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a press release, on behalf of the USDA.
“USDA is taking an ‘all hands’ approach to help address this challenge, including these new partnerships with irrigation districts to support producers,” Vilsack continued. “We want to scale up the tools available to keep farmers farming, while also voluntarily conserving water and expanding markets for water-saving commodities.”
The scientists at Breadlab have been engineering wheat with all of this in mind. They’ve learned that the best way to make crops resilient in extreme climate conditions is to create greater genetic diversity in the wheat itself.
“If we have a chaotic climate, our strategy is to have genetic chaos in the field,” Dr. Stephen Jones — founder and former director of the Breadlab — told NPR. “To strike back, to fight chaos with chaos.”
Made from 100% whole wheat, regeneratively grown “Climate Blend” flour is Breadlab’s answer to extreme weather brought on by climate change. The grain mix is a rainbow of colors and includes an array of seed profiles, like hard red spring wheat, blue wheat, and purple wheat.
Keith and Crystie Kisler, who run Chimacum Grainery in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, planted “Climate Blend” seed varieties in 2021. They watched as it stood strong through a year of extreme heat, uneven rainfall, and heavy snowfall.
“Growing it in the field, it’s an amazingly stable crop,” Kisler told NPR.
But “stable” doesn’t translate to “perfect.” Due to the variety of wheat in the flour, the bread baked from Climate Blend is not always uniform in look, color, and hardiness.
Also, because of the added care involved in its production, it’s pricier than grocery store brand bags of flour (a 3-pound bag of Climate Blend flour costs $7.50.)
However, while it may not win people over by look or affordability, it might win them over by taste.
In early September, NPR journalists Alejandra Borunda and Ryan Kellman joined graduate students and bakers in the Breadlab kitchen, surrounded by the smell of freshly baked cookies and the sound of dough being slapped against countertops.
While they were there, Breadlab baker Mel Darbyshire pulled out a tray of bread loaves made from the Climate Blend. Jones stopped by to taste it.
“It’s buttery and rich,” Jones said, going to grab more. “It’s delicious.”
Breadlab manager Janine Sanguine took a bite too.
“I mean this in the best possible way,” she said, “but it tastes like it’s made with white flour.”
Header image via Chris R. Sims (CC BY-SA 4.0)
