My father had Aunt Jemima buckwheat pancakes as part of his breakfast almost every day and when I fixed pancakes I always used Aunt Jemima buckwheat mix. Then all of a sudden the brand disappeared and other brands of buckwheat flour soon followed.
As the Coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe, many Americans turned bread-baking into a hobby due to the social isolation. As a result there was a rush on flour! Needless to say this rush took flour millers and grocery retailers by surprise. The result was that at the height of the pandemic store shelves throughout the country saw a severe shortage of flour. This shortage was not due to a physical lack of flour, but the food system was not equipped to handle the surge in at-home baking as most flours are sent to commercial bakers or restaurants.
Ever since the United States had entered the First World War the nation’s wheat supply has been high on the federal government’s priority list. Declaring that “food will win the war,” in August of 1917, Congress passed the Lever Act, known more commonly as the Food and Fuel Control act, which granted the government unprecedented control over the US food supply and established the US Food Administration.
Headed by future President Herbert Hoover, the new agency was charged with organizing food supplies at home while ensuring there would be enough to feed both American troops and the Allies abroad.
A staple of working-class diets in much of the world was bread which meant it was a real problem that there was no longer enough wheat bread to go around. Although the United States was a long way from the fighting, American grain producers were reeling from an incredibly low production year in 1917 and demand both at home and abroad caused wheat prices to skyrocket and a domestic shortage to ensue.
President Woodrow Wilson’s Administration quickly undertook stabilizing wheat prices and encouraging Americans to eat less wheat. Americans were encouraged to limit their consumption to just one and one-half pounds of wheat products each week which was about half of the average American’s normal consumption. As a result a significant proportion of white-flour alternatives such as oatmeal, cornmeal, rice flour, potatoes, barley flour and buckwheat flour became popular.
Home cooks could no longer bake bread using all white flour. Obviously such regulations could not be strictly enforced for at-home cooks, but President Hoover believed that the spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice would compel Americans to follow these regulations and many did.
On the other hand, like today's Me Generation who would consider such regulations to be a government conspiracy and a violation of their rights, not everyone was happy with this rationing.
Even though Facebook and other social media platforms didn't exist in those days there were still the fear mongers peddling the idea that there would be an epidemic of gastronomical distress caused by wheat substitutes.
Such rumors were widespread enough to prompt official responses from local and national conservation commissions that there was no reason why people could not use the wheat substitutes to make wholesome, easily digested foodstuffs.
Although the supply issues behind the COVID flour shortage are slowly going away there are signs of an actual global grain shortage with US wheat plantings at historic lows and international markets are seeing increased hoarding and rising prices.
The outbreak of Coronavirus acted as a restraint on flour, rice and malt manufacturing as supply chains were disrupted due to trade restrictions. When governments restricted the movement of goods across countries manufacturers had to halt production due to lack of raw materials. Also, restrictions on trade of non-essential goods and fear of contamination through manufacturing facilities contributed to the decline. In the meantime all we can do is hope that buckwheat pancake flour will soon reappear on grocery store shelves.
All about buckwheat HERE
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