Researchers offer new strains with high levels of beta-glucan

By JOHN O'CONNELL

Capital Press

Monsanto spokesman Trent Clark has fielded an increasing number of inquiries lately from farmers interested in barley as a new heart-healthy ingredient for human consumption.

"We have farmers all over Caribou County asking if Monsanto is going to be developing any barley seed that is a food barley," Clark said. "The interest would be to come up with food barley varieties that grow at our elevation here in Soda Springs that adapt well to the Idaho climate and provide the right consumer traits."

A small percentage of Idaho's barley crop is now produced for culinary use, but industry officials note the market has great promise and seeds are available.

Kelly Olson, Idaho Barley Commission administrator, said a few companies have contracted with southern Idaho growers, including in Caribou County, for the past couple of years.

"Production is small. It's less than 1 percent of our production in Idaho," Olson said. "It hasn't come out of the gate in a really rapid way."

In 2009, Monsanto purchased the Montana-based company WestBred, which specializes in the development of small grains germplasm.

"WestBred is the only plant genetics company that has commercial varieties of what we call food barleys today. I want to emphasize commercial. We've released two public varieties out of ARS (Agricultural Research Service) in Aberdeen," Olson said, adding she expects at least one of those public varieties to soon be grown in Idaho.

WestBred offers two varieties of human food barley, a hull-less barley called BG012, the seed of choice in southern Idaho, and one with a hull called BG006. Both contain about 8.5 percent beta-glucan fiber, shown to benefit the cardiovascular and immune systems.

Experimental lines under development in Aberdeen have beta-glucan levels as high as 16 percent, Olson said. At the moment, the public variety out of Aberdeen available to growers is called Transit, which has 9 percent beta-glucan fiber, compared with 4 percent in traditional barley.

"We want Idaho to be a leading producer. We're doing everything we can as a commission to be the leading food barley (state) in the U.S.," Olson said.

She's been writing about the health benefits of human food barley for a decade, seeking to build demand among growers, consumers and food companies.

Cereal manufacturers are cautious about changing proven ingredients, she said. She believes there's also interest in the product in Japan, Taiwan and other Asian countries.

"We're going to see an expansion, but we're not going to see this wholesale replacement of oats with barley," Olson said. "What we're advocating is barley could be one of many ingredients."

Soda Springs farmer Craig Ozburn acknowledged there's broad interest in human food barley throughout Caribou County. Though he extols the product's health benefits, he's leery about yields and profitability.

"The more markets we can find for barley, the better," Ozburn said.