Enthusiasts hope larger market for buckwheat will encourage farmers to plant more

Buckwheat crops sway in the breeze as bees bop between the plants' tiny white flowers. Underneath, small seeds begin to darken, a sign that harvest nears. Paige Hansen leans down, holding between her fingers the plant whose seeds could soon turn into one of her food products. “That diversity of crops in the field, I think we should be eating the same way with our diets,” Hansen said. After dealing with a dairy allergy in her adult life, Hansen traveled back and forth for about two years between her home in California and the Cornell Food Venture Center in Geneva, New York, to develop a buckwheat-based alternative milk. Now, she has partnered with New Barn Organics, launching her buckwheat milk in Whole Foods Markets across the country and creating a buckwheat milk powder that could be used as an ingredient in confections, snacks, crackers, and other food products. It's part of an effort Hansen and her partners are undertaking to expand the market for buckwheat and hopefully incentivize more farmers to plant it. In the United States, some farmers already plant buckwheat as a cover crop, but many farmers avoid planting cover crops because of the costs despite the environmental benefits. Hansen and other organic farmers see buckwheat as one way to change the food system and help farmers become more resilient in the face of human-caused climate change. A popular food crop in the United States until the mid-20th century, buckwheat fell out of favor as farmers turned to higher-yield crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat. Today, buckwheat is often used as a cover crop, and farmers often use the fast-growing plant to suppress weeds or rebuild depleted soils between the harvesting of other crops like corn and soybeans. As a cover crop, buckwheat can also store carbon in its roots and reduce fertilizer runoff at times when fields would otherwise be bare. Globally, about 2 million tons of buckwheat were produced in 2024, according to data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, a decrease of about half over the last two decades. Comparatively, about 1.2 billion tons of corn were produced globally in 2024, an increase of about 53% in that same time period. This article was provided by The Associated Press.