Consumption Rebound Benefits Processing Industry.(U.S. per capita wheat consumption)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

The rise in U.S. per capita wheat consumption (measured as flour and the flour equivalent in food products such as bread, cookies, and pasta) is the extension of an historic turnaround that occurred in the 1970's.

For nearly 100 years, per capita wheat consumption had declined in the U.S., as physical labor declined and diets diversified. Wheat consumption had dropped from over 225 pounds per person in 1879 to 180 pounds in 1925, bottoming out at 110 pounds in 1972.

By 1997, U.S. per capita wheat consumption was back up to 149.5 pounds, the highest since the…