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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Jul 06 2011 - 08:26:08 EDT
"Consumers, however, are catching the buzz that teff is nutritious,
gluten-free and can be baked into breads, cookies, pizza crusts and other
pastries. It's widely used in East Africa for a flatbread called injera, for
a porridge similar to cream of wheat and as a fermented alcoholic beverage"
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2011/07/exotic_gluten-free_grain_growing_in_popularity_--_enough_to_cause_a_dust-up_in_eastern_oregon.html
Exotic, gluten-free grain grows in popularity -- enough to cause a dust-up
in eastern Oregon
Published: Sunday, July 03, 2011, 10:25 PM Updated: Tuesday, July 05,
2011, 7:50 AM
By Richard Cockle, The Oregonian The Oregonian
PENDLETON -- A little-known grain from the Horn of Africa -- billed as the
next wave in America's quest for healthy foods -- is proving that
competition for a hot commodity can get downright nasty.
Only a few thousand acres of Oregon farmland are believed devoted to the
production of *teff* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eragrostis_tef>. But
people suffering from gluten intolerance together with immigrants hungry for
traditional Ethiopian and Eritrean ethnic dishes are driving up the domestic
demand for the iron-rich grain.
All of which appears to have played into an angry clash between rival teff
traders in the out-of-the-way Starlite Cafe last year in Vale.
Wayne Carlson of Caldwell Idaho, founder of The Teff Co., has pleaded guilty
in Malheur County Circuit Court to a misdemeanor harassment charge in the
incident with Tesfa Drar, who was born in Ethiopia and now lives in
Minneapolis.
"This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me," said Drar, a U.S.
resident since 1981. "I was shocked."
Court records say Carlson sat down beside Drar, who was meeting with a
prospective teff grower in the cafe, and accused him of cheating growers and
smuggling seed into the U.S. from Ethiopia. The two had never before met
face-to-face, and Carlson allegedly used a racial epithet and told Drar to
go back to his own country.
Carlson was sentenced in April to 12 months of probation, community service
and ordered to write an apology to Drar.
The confrontation raised a lot of eyebrows. Teff production is a mere blip
on the annual U.S. Department of Agriculture's major agricultural crop
charts. It stands in obscurity alongside organically grown Kamut, an ancient
khorasan wheat from Egypt, and quinoa from the Andes of Peru, Bolivia and
Ecuador, in the ranks of exotic grains newly popular among health food
consumers.
Drar said he thinks Carlson is afraid he's going to take over the
international teff business. "I have better access to the consumers who buy
it," he said.
Carlson and his attorney, Mike Mahoney of Vale, didn't return phone calls
for comment.
Teff is increasingly embraced as a high-quality horse hay and grown in at
least 25 states, according to the University of Nevada Extension Service.
Nevada is emerging as a big teff state, with 15 variations grown in
Churchill County alone, mostly for cattle and horse forage.
Farmers in Oregon cultivate about 3,000 acres of teff for hay, said Rich
Roseberg, an *Oregon State University
Extension*<http://extension.oregonstate.edu/>agent in Klamath Falls.
They grow another 1,000 acres for food grain, he
estimated.
Nationally, fewer than 10,000 acres are believed dedicated to food grain
production of teff for milling into flour.
That's in stark contrast to 53 million acres of wheat, 73 million acres of
corn and 73 million acres of soybeans harvested annually in the United
States.
Consumers, however, are catching the buzz that teff is nutritious,
gluten-free and can be baked into breads, cookies, pizza crusts and other
pastries. It's widely used in East Africa for a flatbread called injera, for
a porridge similar to cream of wheat and as a fermented alcoholic beverage.
Neil Koberstein, purchasing manager at *Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods of
Milwaukie* <http://www.bobsredmill.com/>, buys about 18,000 pounds of teff
every 45 days to be stone ground into flour and sold, he said. That's up
from 7,500 pounds a decade ago.
"We've had remarkable growth in the last 10 years," Koberstein said.
Teff seeds are so tiny, about 1.25 million to the pound, that "if you were
to puncture a bag, it pours out like water," Koberstein said. It takes about
150 teff seeds to equal a single grain of wheat.
For some people, flat breads and other pastries made from teff flour are an
acquired taste, he noted. Taste descriptions range from sour to bland to
delicious.
"Injera is sort of like a sourdough pancake," said Brian Charlton, an OSU
Extension agronomist in Klamath Falls who enjoys Ethiopian cuisine. "I liked
it right away. I wish somebody would open a restaurant in Klamath Falls. I'd
eat there all the time."
Drar is adamant: Teff is the food of the future, and he wants everybody to
eat it. His enthusiasm for the offbeat grain borders on the mystical and
mythic:
"Ethiopians are always No. 1 as marathoners. Why do you think?" he asked,
having dinner recently in the Hamley Steakhouse in Pendleton, where teff is
definitely not on the menu. "It's teff! They eat it three times a day!"
The word teff in the ancient Amharic language of Ethiopia means "lost,"
because the grains are prone to blowing away in the faintest breeze, he
said. Three-thousand-year-old teff seeds have been found in Egyptian
pyramids, he says.
Then, stealing a march on the biblical mustard seed, Drar added, "This is
the smallest seed on Earth!"
Drar immigrated to America to study computer science and later to earn his
living as a commodities trader. He was dismayed to find the injera that he
was accustomed to having with his meals was absent from stores. He longed
for it constantly.
Eventually, Drar flew to Ethiopia and brought 20 pounds of teff seed back to
Minneapolis. He began cultivating a few acres, talked others into doing
likewise and ultimately marketed his "Selam" brand of teff flour to ethnic
grocery stores and restaurants.
These days, he travels the nation six months a year, using his van,
smartphone and laptop as a mobile office. He takes orders for teff from
ethnic stores and restaurants and works hard to convince farmers to partner
with him in growing and marketing the grain.
Someday, he hopes to export American-grown teff to Ethiopia, which is too
parched to grow enough for itself, he said.
"Teff is in my blood," Drar said. "I don't want to see people hungry."
-- *Richard Cockle* <rcockle@oregonwireless.net>
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