Marc Gunther : The 'Story' of Wheat Montana

The 'Story' of Wheat Montana

When Dean Folkvord finished high school in 1978, his father Dale bought a wheat farm near Three Forks, Montana. Their only plan was to sell wheat. Since then, they have built a company Wheat Montana,, that sells wheat, mills flour, bakes bread and operates eight casual restaurants. Their story illustrates how farmers can make a direct connection to consumers, and thereby create an alternative to conventional, commodity agriculture—which isn’t working well in much of the rural west.

The conventional agricultural model still dominates, of course. It’s based on feeding the most people, at the least cost, with commodity products, grown with lots of chemical inputs. It drives down prices paid to farmers, and it’s one reason why Montana is a poor state—45th in the nation in household income.

Folkvord, 46, has blazed a different trail. Wheat Montana, as he explains it, does more than sell wheat, flour and bread—it tells a story, and helps to forge a link between the consumer and the family farm. (A picture of his family adorns Montana Wheat’s bread and flour packages.) Most farmers, when business is good, expand “horizontally” by buying more land. By contrast, Folkvord has expanded “vertically” up the value chain, capturing a bigger share of the prices people pay for food. As a result, his company today employs about 190 people, and provides work for another 100 or so through suppliers and partners.

This past weekend, I’ve been learning a little about agriculture, mining, land use and conservation issues in the west at a conference in beautiful Big Sky, Montana, sponsored by PERC (The Property and Environment Research Center), an NGO that promotes market-based solutions to enviromental problems. Disclosure: PERC paid the expense of reporters who attended the event. More about PERC in a posting later this week.

Folkvord came upon his business model by necessity. He wasn’t making enough money as a wheat farmer in the early 1990s, and so built a bakery. “We really didn’t want to get into the bread business, but we felt it was something we had to do,” he says. The same goes for his first bakery and deli, which he opened, with trepidation, right by the farm; he and his dad figured they’d sell sandwiches to local farmers and ranchers, as well as a few travelers driving by on nearby I-90. “People showed up from Seattle and Minneapolis and they wanted expresso,” he says. “All I knew about expresso was that I didn’t like it,” he says. He ordered expresso machines from Bozeman and learned how to make lattes. “We realized, wow, there’s something going on here and all of a sudden we were in the food business,” he says.

Today, Wheat Montana has eight retail outlets—bakeries and delis—around the state, and Folkvord’s looking to expand to Washington state and eventually California. “It plugs into a trend out there in America where we might be getting tired of fast, fried food and people want foods that’s fresh and good for you,” he says. (Although the popular cinnamon rolls aren’t exactly slimming.) He sells fresh bread in five states, with wheat varieties being his big seller. Wal-Mart’s the biggest seller of his flour. And he ships wheat kernels to specialty bakeries around America, including Spring Mill Bakery near my home in Bethesda, Md.

Interestingly, Folkvord’s products are not organic. His farm gets only about 12 inches of rainfall a year, the growing season is short and it’s at an altitude of more than 5,000 feet. Half his land lays idle each year to replenish the soil, he’s got weed problems and he says it wouildn’t be practical to go organic (although other Montana farmers grow lots of organic wheat). Instead, he has his flour and bread tested by a third-party to make sure they contain no artificial chemical. and markets them as “chemical free,” GMO free and “better than organic.” Yes, there’s some pressure to go organic, but he stands behind the healthfulness of his break and says, “We’re Norwegian and bull-headed and we’re not going to change.”

Recently the Folkvord family sold a big stake in Wheat Montana to outside investors. They are looking for capital and expertise to get national distribution for their products and for the chain of deli. “The Big Sky’s the limit,” says Folkvord. Does this mean they are no longer a family farm? We could argue about the family farm but you can drive to Three Forks and see the wheat fields for yourself. Just try to find the ‘farm’ where Pepperidge Farm grows its wheat.

09:57 AM in Environment, Food, Small business | Permalink

Comments

How can I get some of your 'hard white winter wheat'? Wal-mart only carries 'hard white spring wheat' in my area. How much would it cost to ship me 100# to Olympia, Washington?

Thank you,

JOYCE Stanton
2201 Carpenter Rd. N.E.
Olympia, Wa. 98516

Posted by: Joyce Stanton | December 12, 2007 at 09:07 AM

How can I get some of your 'hard white winter wheat'? Wal-mart only carries 'hard white spring wheat' in my area. How much would it cost to ship me 100# to Olympia, Washington?

Thank you,

JOYCE Stanton
2201 Carpenter Rd. N.E.
Olympia, Wa. 98516

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