WASHINGTON — Extending what has been a period of unprecedented stability, per capita disappearance of wheat flour in the United States was 135 lbs in 2014. The estimate, issued by the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture along with its April “Wheat Outlook,” was precisely the same figure as in 2013 and was within a single pound of the per capita figure of every year but one dating back to 2009.
The stability in per capita consumption of recent years, which really dates back to near the start of the 21st century in 2002, stands in marked contrast to the experience of the 20th century when consumption began by its downtrend to past the half-way mark followed by a third of a century of dramatic gains toward the century’s end. During that 100 years there was hardly two years of per capita being unchanged, much less anything approaching the recent record.
