Minnesota was once the wheat milling capital of the U.S. but wheat has been disappearing from the state and from traditional growing regions. In 2012 wheat acreage was 60% less than it was in the 1970’s and 80’s. Farmers are turning to corn and soybeans which are both easier to grow and bring better yields and profitability than wheat mostly due to genetic engineering. The decrease in wheat acreage in the traditional growing regions of the Upper Midwest is causing problems for mills which are finding themselves farther from the crop and having to pay increasing transportation costs, and for the port of Duluth-Superior where wheat was the main agricultural exports. Many farmers are calling for the approval of GM wheat but global markets are not receptive as was seen when a strain of GM wheat was found in an Oregon field earlier this year and Japan and South Korea halted wheat shipments from the U.S. Because of the profitability of GM crops, research spending on corn outpaces that of wheat by 10 to 1 and where the was once wheat, there is now corn growing up to the Canadian border.
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