AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
It's an uphill climb for any new product to find a place in a grocery store. Shelf space is precious, and consumers often know exactly what they want. But thanks to a drier climate, a sturdy cereal may have a chance to break into American diets. Harvest Public Media's Michael Marks reports.
MICHAEL MARKS, BYLINE: In the exhibit hall of a convention center in Lubbock, Texas, chef Chase Obenchain is giving a cooking demonstration with a seldom-used ingredient.
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CHASE OBENCHAIN: I'm going to bring this up to temp here. Then we'll add in our sorghum.
MARKS: Sorghum, also called milo, is a kind of cereal like corn or wheat. Obenchain is using it to make a version of Spanish rice at the Global Sorghum Conference, a gathering of researchers and farmers from across the world who all work with the crop. So this audience was already well aware of sorghum's culinary potential. But Obenchain says they are in the minority.
OBENCHAIN: When it comes to the first thing that people say to me when I say I work with sorghum, it's usually, what is sorghum?
MARKS: That's him speaking after the presentation. Obenchain is the corporate chef for the Sorghum Checkoff, a group that supports the industry.
OBENCHAIN: You know, when it comes to applications of sorghum, I always talk about just the diversity and functionality and flexibility that sorghum lends. I mean, it's a really fantastic neutral base as far as grains go.
MARKS: In some parts of the world, like sub-Saharan Africa, sorghum is a staple, but Americans don't really eat it, even though the U.S. is the world's leading sorghum producer. Farmers grow far more acres of crops like soybeans or corn. Lanier Dabruzzi is the director of nutrition and food innovation for the Sorghum Checkoff.
LANIER DABRUZZI: We either export a lot of it or we use it for other uses like ethanol, animal feed, things like that. And it's just not as well known.
MARKS: But sorghum is becoming more attractive for producers dealing with a drier climate and unpredictable rainfall. Its deep roots help it capture moisture, even during drought. Sarah Sexton-Bowser directs the Center for Sorghum Improvement at Kansas State University.
SARAH SEXTON-BOWSER: A connecting thread of sorghum production across the globe is you find sorghum production in spots where things are tough.
MARKS: In the U.S., most sorghum grows in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Farmers there rely on the Ogallala aquifer, a massive underground water reserve, but its supply is dwindling.
SEXTON-BOWSER: What I have seen in my over a decade working for sorghum is a rapid change of the water resources.
MARKS: Lately, Sexton-Bowser says she's been getting calls from farmers across the country who are curious about the crop. But to support growing more sorghum, industry members say Americans need to eat it. Sorghum entrepreneur Jessica Davidoff agrees.
JESSICA DAVIDOFF: There's no reason people should have never heard of it. It grows here. It's not like we're, like, discovering acai from Brazil or quinoa from the Andes. It's like, no, sorghum grows here.
MARKS: Davidoff is the New York-based founder and CEO of a food brand called Cob, which makes popped sorghum, which is a little, like, small, soft popcorn.
DAVIDOFF: So you eat it more like a trail mix. Like, I scoop it up by the handful instead of eating it kernel by kernel.
MARKS: Cob recently released a sorghum tortilla chip, too. Davidoff says that even though the grain may have low name recognition, other current trends may lead people to sorghum.
DAVIDOFF: It's like this fiber tidal wave, this antioxidant tidal wave. And they're aware of all these kind of macrotrends, and our product and sorghum, specifically, kind of hits all of them, so we get to, like, ride these waves, even though the wave isn't necessarily a sorghum wave yet.
MARKS: Down the road, she plans to package and sell uncooked sorghum grain. Davidoff hopes someday it will be in every American pantry.
For NPR News, I'm Michael Marks.
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