[Collab] WSJ: "Move Over, Quinoa. There’s a New ‘It’ Crop in Town" (sorghum)

19 May 2025

      The Wall Street Journal ran a feature article last month on sorghum, in
light of changes in food tastes and disruptions to grain export markets
occasioned by tariffs. Also attention to the issue of its name. Sharing
text and link of the article here for educational and discussion purposes
only. If you have access through subscription (personal, organization, or
school), please share, if you like, using your subscription. (See
disclaimer at end)

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"Move Over, Quinoa. There’s a New ‘It’ Crop in Town: As the trade war
strands sorghum in Kansas, the state’s farmers hope to push the tiny grain
with an uncool name onto dinner plates," by Joe Barrett, Wall Street
Journal, April 27, 2025
https://www.wsj.com/business/move-over-quinoa-theres-a-new-it-crop-in-town-7...

MANHATTAN, Kan.—The dishes, starring what some are calling the next super
food, rolled out of the kitchen of a Kansas State University gastropub: a
cold plate of veggies with the tiny grain drizzled in honey-lemon
vinaigrette; a ginger-soy vegan stir fry; and a creamy pudding.

Rice? Quinoa? Couscous? Try sorghum—a high protein, non-GMO, gluten-free
grain. It’s what’s for dinner. Or it could be—if only it had a cooler name.

“The ‘sor’ is fine, but the ‘ghum’ implies maybe chewing gum,” said Claib
Harris, the pub’s head chef. “Maybe we could rebrand it into something
else.”

Getting more people to eat sorghum is taking on new urgency for Kansas
farmers caught in the middle of the global trade war. They grow the most
sorghum in the U.S., the largest producer of the world’s fifth-biggest
grain crop.

In recent years, China has been buying more than half the U.S. crop to feed
hogs and produce baijiu, among the world’s most-consumed liquors. But China
canceled some purchases and mostly pulled back from the market in January,
expecting stiff new tariffs under the second Trump administration. Now,
storage facilities across the western half of the Sunflower State are
packed to the rafters with sorghum as operators struggle to find domestic
buyers ahead of next fall’s harvest.

Most U.S. grain sorghum is used for animal feed and ethanol. A small but
growing share, about 5%, up from 2% over the past decade, ends up in things
such as gluten-free baked goods, grain bowls and baby foods, according to
Lanier Dabruzzi, director of nutrition and food innovation for the National
Sorghum Producers. It is now in 1,677 items at the grocery store, up from
800 in 2017, she said.

[Image AltText] Plate of jerk chicken, sorghum, roasted vegetables and
spinach.
[Image Caption] A cold plate of veggies and jerk chicken with sorghum
drizzled in honey-lemon vinaigrette. Some of the sorghum is dyed red with
beetroot juice. Photo: JOE BARRETT/WSJ

That has some dreaming of sorghum becoming the next quinoa.

“We do see sorghum as kind of that ‘it’ crop for domestic food,” said Adam
York, chief executive of Kansas Sorghum Producers, an industry group.

Sorghum has twice the protein of quinoa and four times that of rice or
corn, said Sarah Sexton-Bowser, managing director of the Center for Sorghum
Improvement at Kansas State.

The Sorghum Checkoff, a farmer-funded marketing group, touts the cereal as
a super grain and “pro-planet protein source that’s packed full of
nutrients.” Its website features recipes for waffles, cheeseburger bowls,
sorghum-breaded chicken tenders and more. Sorghum can be popped like
popcorn and brewed in beer or tea. The plant can also be used to make
sorghum syrup.

The National Sorghum Producers say sorghum’s unusual name could be an
advantage. “We’ve definitely heard the chatter over the years,” Dabruzzi
said. “We like to think of sorghum as that under-the-radar rock star with a
quirky name, just like açaí, chai or kombucha.”

Still, even in Kansas, sorghum, or milo, as it is called in the state, is
far from a staple. The recipes sampled at the Kansas State gastropub are
rarely on the regular menu, Harris said.

“Because so many of us were raised on farms, there is that barrier of, ‘Oh,
I filled a lot of 5- gallon buckets of milo and fed it to the hogs and
cattle, and they’re serving it here?’ ” said Missy Schrader, a dietitian
who oversees food services at a Kansas State dining hall.

West of Manhattan, where Kansas turns flat and dry and drought-resistant
sorghum thrives, elevator operators have been working nonstop to unload the
grain since China largely pulled out of the market.

Kim Barnes, chief financial officer of the Pawnee County Cooperative
Association in Larned, Kan., points to a chalkboard diagram showing most of
his elevator units are still full of sorghum, although he has finally been
able to sell it off to ethanol plants and livestock feed businesses. He
lost about 40 cents a bushel on all 1.4 million bushels that would have
gone overseas, he said.

“I just kept turning over rocks and boulders until I found a place to go
with it,” he said.

[Image AltText] Man pointing at chalkboard diagram showing sorghum storage
levels.
[Image Caption] Kim Barnes, finance chief of the Pawnee County Cooperative
in Larned, Kan., uses a chalk diagram to point out that most of his grain
elevators are full of sorghum, or milo, as farmers call it in Kansas.
Photo: JOE BARRETT/WSJ
[Image AltText] Pawnee County Cooperative Association grain elevators.
[Image Caption] Grain elevators at the Pawnee County Cooperative. Photo:
JOE BARRETT/WSJ

John Dryden, a grain farmer who is part of Barnes’s co-op, stood in a hot
dry field on a recent day and explained that he was planting corn on some
acres where he would normally plant sorghum because of the uncertainty over
tariffs. He is a Trump supporter, he said, but isn’t sure the president has
a solid plan on tariffs.

“I hope they have a big plan. It looks like they’re flying by the seat of
their pants,” he said. “We’re a small fish out here, so all we can do is
kind of roll with the punches.”

A couple of hours farther west in Scott City, the loss of China as an
export partner is less of a worry for Earl Roemer, founder of Nu Life
Market, a sorghum mill that sells popped sorghum, sorghum flour and other
ingredients to consumer-product companies. He expects 15% growth this year
and 30% next year based on current contracts.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Have you tried sorghum? If so, what did you think? Join the conversation
below.

Sorghum’s benefits, such as being gluten-free and non-GMO, have helped it
overcome many obstacles, including its name, Roemer said.

“Sorghum is not an attractive name, like quinoa is cool,” he said. He said
he explored with a consumer-products company the possibility of relaunching
the ancient grain with a new name. “It became too late,” he said. “It was
already recognized on labels. So the decision was made: It’s fine.”

Sorghum has had brief moments in the national spotlight. In one episode of
the television show “Cheers,” harried bar owner Sam Malone mistakenly
ordered a truckload of sorghum. “I said I wanted some more gum,” he says.
“I hate voicemail.”

Several years ago, chef and entertainer George Duran, who lives in the
other Manhattan, the one in New York, was paid by the Sorghum Checkoff to
demonstrate sorghum’s versatility in a TV appearance. He has since adopted
the high-protein grain as a staple at home as he tries to get his children
to eat healthier. “If we could just market it as maybe, like, ‘The Miracle
Grain’ or something, I think it can really go pretty far,” he said.

Write to Joe Barrett at Joseph.Barrett(at)wsj.com

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Don Osborn, PhD
(East Lansing, MI, US)
North American Millets Alliance