Scott Yates

The gut microbiome may well be the last frontier of nutrition science and lucky for wheat farmers, bread and other wheat-based products are among the perfect foods to feed the fantastic community of micro organisms that exist there.

Once a relative backwater for hosting trade teams, Eastern Washington has become a must visit destination for wheat buyers from around the world who want to learn more about the grain they are receiving, the farmers who grow it and the infrastructure that transports it.

Much of the work of ensuring Pacific Northwest wheat farmers are successful happens behind the scenes by people who are rarely recognized for their contributions.

Hunger, no running water and hard manual labor are among Zhiwu Zhang’s memories of growing up in China before the country opened to the world. Now, an associate professor at Washington State University and a U.S. citizen, Zhang describes his upbringing in episode 151.

There’s plenty of challenges to choose from, but Squires limits himself to discussing several that cause him sleepless nights. No. 1 on his list is the second discovery of genetically engineered wheat plants in Washington State last spring.