From Bread to Cake

Abstract

This article deepens our understanding of Cold War–era agricultural history by examining the relationship between Pacific Northwest soft white wheat and Japanese importers and consumers. Recent historiography of wheat during the Cold War has focused on telling how the United States turned to wheat exports in the “developing world” as a tool and weapon to achieve US hegemony and negate the influence of the Soviet Union. This article argues that the Pacific Northwest wheat industry's relationship with wheat consumers and importers in Japan shifts the Cold War wheat narrative away from staples like bread to confectionary products made with soft white flour. Japanese buyers and consumers purchased soft white wheat not to feed the hungry but instead to serve a growing market for cakes and other confectionary products. This relationship helps understand the current wheat market in the Pacific Northwest, where soft white wheat exports dominate.