THE JOURNEY OF WHEAT IN THE MEDITERRANEAN -V

The final conference of this journey organized by the Izmir Mediterranean Academy through which we witnessed the adventure of wheat was entitled “Things that Happened to Wheat” and was held at the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center on 9 December 2017.

The conference entitled “Things That Happened to Wheat” was moderated by Professor Alp Yücel Kaya with Abdullah Aysu (President of Hububat-Sen), Mustafa Alper Ülgen (Ida Mountain Life and Seed Association) and lawyer Necdet Bayhan giving presentations.

Abdullah Aysu discussed the global and regional importance of wheat in history with reference to the distance that wheat took from the Ottoman era to the present and the impact of wheat on producers and consumers.

Mustafa Alper Ülgen emphasized the importance of local wheat varieties and that food products obtained from wheat are healthier.

Necdet Bayhan said that local wheat from seed to the table is under economic and political pressures of industrial agriculture and nutrition systems. Describing the collapse of social structures as local seed and food processing methods wither away, Bayhan presented the local food groups, problems and solutions through his own experience.