Grain by Grain

"A compelling agricultural story skillfully told; environmentalists will eat it up." - Kirkus Reviews When Bob Quinn was a kid, a stranger at a county fair gave him a few kernels of an unusual grain. Little did he know, that grain would change his life. Years later, after finishing a PhD in plant biochemistry and returning to his family’s farm in Montana, Bob started experimenting with organic wheat. In the beginning, his concern wasn’t health or the environment; he just wanted to make a decent living and some chance encounters led him to organics.
But as demand for organics grew, so too did Bob’s experiments. He discovered that through time-tested practices like cover cropping and crop rotation, he could produce successful yields—without pesticides. Regenerative organic farming allowed him to grow fruits and vegetables in cold, dry Montana, providing a source of local produce to families in his hometown. He even started producing his own renewable energy. And he learned that the grain he first tasted at the fair was actually a type of ancient wheat, one that was proven to lower inflammation rather than worsening it, as modern wheat does.
Ultimately, Bob’s forays with organics turned into a multimillion dollar heirloom grain company, Kamut International. In Grain by Grain, Quinn and cowriter Liz Carlisle, author of Lentil Underground, show how his story can become the story of American agriculture. We don’t have to accept stagnating rural communities, degraded soil, or poor health. By following Bob’s example, we can grow a healthy future, grain by grain.

"A compelling agricultural story skillfully told; environmentalists will eat it up." - Kirkus Reviews When Bob Quinn was a kid, a stranger at a county fair gave him a few kernels of an unusual grain. Years later, it would become the centerpiece of his multimillion dollar heirloom grain company, Kamut International. How Bob went from being a true believer in better farming through chemistry to a leading proponent of organics is the unlikely story of Grain by Grain. Along the way, readers will learn how ancient wheat can lower inflammation, how regenerative agriculture can bring back rural jobs, and how combining time-tested farming practices with modern science can point the way for the future of food.

Bob Quinn is an organic farmer near Big Sandy, Montana, and a leading green businessman. He served on the first National Organic Standards Board, and has been recognized with the Montana Organic Association Lifetime of Service Award, The Organic Trade Association Organic Leadership Award, and Rodale Institute’s Organic Pioneer Award. His enterprises include the ancient grain business Kamut International and Montana’s first wind farm.
Liz Carlisle is a Lecturer in the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University. Her first book, Lentil Underground, won the Montana Book Award and the Green Prize for Sustainable Literature.
 

Prologue by Liz Carlisle                                                                                             
Introduction: Food on the Cheap                                                                                                      
Chapter 1. Roots and Growth                                                                        
Chapter 2. Better Farming through Chemistry?
Chapter 3. Beyond Commodities                                                                                        
Chapter 4. Going Organic                                                                                                       
Chapter 5. King Tut’s Wheat                                      
Chapter 6. Growing Partners                                                                                                     
Chapter 7. A Cowboy in Europe                                                                                             
Chapter 8. Creating a New Standard                                                                                      
Chapter 9. The Value of Limits                                                                                               
Chapter 10. Taste of Place                                                                                                     
Chapter 11. Recycling Energy                                                                                     
Chapter 12. Bringing Rural Jobs Back                                                                                    
Chapter 13. The Gluten Mystery                                                                                              
Chapter 14. Food as Medicine                                                                                    
Chapter 15. One Great Subject                                                                                   
Chapter 16. Rejecting the Status Quo                                                 
Chapter 17. Conclusion: A New Generation of Growers and Eaters                         
 
Acknowledgments 
Notes 
Index

"A compelling agricultural story skillfully told; environmentalists will eat it up." 

"Those looking for food systems reading material, whether for an introductory course or general interest, will find that this book’s smooth and effective navigation of ecology, history, sociology, and political economy provides a comprehensive overview of agriculture in America as well as a provocative questioning of conventional farming." 

"In the age of start-ups and tech crazes, it might seem counterintuitive to call something as ancient as grain 'revelatory.' Nevertheless, Bob Quinn's quest to recapture the value of our food system through grain is just that—a revelation. Liz Carlisle and Bob Quinn have unlocked the key to kickstarting change—Grain by Grain is one big kernel of truth."

“It is a fun book to read, written at an easy conversational level, and provides a lot of useful information. It should be a good addition to anyone exploring the food movement toward sustainable and organic farming and could be useful reading yoked to critical analysis of this approach as part of a university course focused on food production.”
 

"Grain by Grain is a book for our times, one that demonstrates alternatives to help diversify agriculture, develop more resilient systems, and stimulate rural economies in a future with uncertain economic and climatic conditions. It is a must-read resource for those in agriculture who suffer from the pains of trade wars and tariffs, negative environmental spin-offs from chemical technologies, and narrow focus on a few major commodity crops. The book outlines
a thoughtful entrepreneurial process for designing and implementing a diverse and economically viable future for agriculture and rural areas."

"Farmer and plant biochemist Bob Quinn's passionate story makes it impossible to go on farming (or eating) as usual. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand why our food system is so unhealthy and how we can fix it."

"Long before anybody heard the term social enterprise, a few untrained businesspeople started small, unconventional companies to solve problems for their neighbors—and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. This is the story of one such entrepreneurial effort, which demonstrates how a green economy rooted in regenerative organic agriculture and renewable energy can help rebuild struggling communities in rural America."

"A compelling personal story that takes the wind out of the war on wheat and charts a course for getting rural America off the agrochemical treadmill."

"A compelling agricultural story skillfully told; environmentalists will eat it up." 

"Those looking for food systems reading material, whether for an introductory course or general interest, will find that this book’s smooth and effective navigation of ecology, history, sociology, and political economy provides a comprehensive overview of agriculture in America as well as a provocative questioning of conventional farming." 

"In the age of start-ups and tech crazes, it might seem counterintuitive to call something as ancient as grain 'revelatory.' Nevertheless, Bob Quinn's quest to recapture the value of our food system through grain is just that—a revelation. Liz Carlisle and Bob Quinn have unlocked the key to kickstarting change—Grain by Grain is one big kernel of truth."

“It is a fun book to read, written at an easy conversational level, and provides a lot of useful information. It should be a good addition to anyone exploring the food movement toward sustainable and organic farming and could be useful reading yoked to critical analysis of this approach as part of a university course focused on food production.”
 

"Grain by Grain is a book for our times, one that demonstrates alternatives to help diversify agriculture, develop more resilient systems, and stimulate rural economies in a future with uncertain economic and climatic conditions. It is a must-read resource for those in agriculture who suffer from the pains of trade wars and tariffs, negative environmental spin-offs from chemical technologies, and narrow focus on a few major commodity crops. The book outlines
a thoughtful entrepreneurial process for designing and implementing a diverse and economically viable future for agriculture and rural areas."

"Farmer and plant biochemist Bob Quinn's passionate story makes it impossible to go on farming (or eating) as usual. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand why our food system is so unhealthy and how we can fix it."

"Long before anybody heard the term social enterprise, a few untrained businesspeople started small, unconventional companies to solve problems for their neighbors—and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. This is the story of one such entrepreneurial effort, which demonstrates how a green economy rooted in regenerative organic agriculture and renewable energy can help rebuild struggling communities in rural America."

"A compelling personal story that takes the wind out of the war on wheat and charts a course for getting rural America off the agrochemical treadmill."