Cultivated as a food source for more than 9000 years, wheat has undergone many changes in the process of its
domestication. A likely ancestor to all cultivated wheats is wild einkorn, the small grains and long, brittle stalks of which
typify early species such as einkorn, still cultivated as animal feed; wild emmer with slightly larger grains; and emmer,
widely used by the Greeks and Romans and closely related to the modern wheats at right. The strength and large
grains of spelt wheat, a hybrid still grown in Europe, offered a radically high yield from fewer plants. Further
modifications produced the large-grained durum wheat used to make most pasta, as well as bread wheat, high in
gluten to make bread dough elastic and airy.
Wheat has been grown throughout temperate regions of the world since prehistoric times. Although wheat’s primary
use is as a flour, it is also used in brewing and distilling, as livestock feed, and even as a coffee substitute. The former
Soviet Union, China, and the United States lead the world in the production of wheat.
