Organic wheat grown under dryland conditions encounters challenges such as limited nutrients and water. Maintaining organic wheat production requires solutions to these problems in order to retain economic sustainability for the farmers. Research on biochar and compost have been conducted globally. Despite well known benefits of compost on soil and crop production, few organic farmers apply compost to their fields. Research on biochar is still new. Biochar is charcoal created from pyrolyzing agricultural material under conditions of low oxygen and high heat. Many studies claim that biochar is a valuable soil amendment for improving organic production and reducing environmental pollution (such as greenhouse gas emission, water pollution, or nutrient leaching). It may hold more moisture in the soil and retain nutrients. We conducted a study on the interactions between biochar and compost in organic winter wheat production and soil quality under dryland conditions. We analyzed the response to biochar and compost, and investigated individual and combined effects on wheat yield, wheat quality, and soil quality. This study revealed that compost had significant impacts on increasing wheat yield and had slight impacts on soil quality while biochar had none to slight impacts on soil and wheat production. We validated the usefulness of compost for organic wheat production in dryland condition, but found no real benefit for biochar in this first year.

This dissertation aims to address issues related to supply and demand of organic wheat either as a commodity or contained in the final consumer products. Objectives for the first essay are to evaluate organic wheat price and premium risk, how it affects the profitability of organic wheat production, and examine whether hedging and forecasting can be used to manage the organic wheat price risk. A side objective is to apply and evaluate several data imputation methods to recover missing organic wheat price observations. Objectives for the second essay are to identify “very likely,” “likely,” and “unlikely” consumers of organic wheat products, examine the differences across the consumer groups to understand which sociodemographic characteristics and other factors drive demand for organic wheat products, and which product characteristics and labels are important to consumers. Objectives for the third essay are to obtain willingness to pay values for organic label alone, examine whether combining organic label with other labels (non-GMO, gluten-free, sugar-free or low-carb) is beneficial for consumers, and evaluate whether knowledge and familiarity with organic, wheat or gluten intolerance or avoidance, and other sociodemographic characteristics affect how consumers value the organic label alone and in combination with other labels. The analyses in the second and third essay are performed using two wheat product categories (bread and cookies) to examine how findings differ across different product categories. This dissertation provides several societal benefits. The findings provide insights that may play an important role in supporting growth of the organic wheat production through reduction of uncertainty associated with wheat commodity prices and final consumer demand. Understanding the dynamics of organic wheat prices, how they can affect profitability of organic wheat production and what can be done to reduce the uncertainty is critical to organic wheat growers and food manufacturers when they make production decisions. The findings in the second and third essay will assist food manufacturers and marketers as they develop new products and marketing strategies and make labelling decisions. The findings in this dissertation may allow them to match consumers’ needs better, and thus use the limited organic wheat supply more efficiently.

<p> </p><p>Correlation between production method and mineral-, cadmium- and protein content were sought for Swedish winter wheat. The wheat was grown according to conventional, organic or biodynamic principles. The minerals; iron, zinc, magnesium, copper and the heavy metal cadmium were analyzed with atomic absorption spectroscopy. Protein was analyzed with elemental combustion analysis. All together, 17 samples were analyzed; nine from the still ongoing Bollerup field trial in Skåne and eight from four different farm pairs in the midst of Sweden.</p><p>The Bollerup field trials showed that organic wheat had a higher concentration of iron than conventional. Both organic and biodynamic wheat had a higher concentration of zinc than conventional. Magnesium concentration was higher in biodynamic wheat than in conventional grown wheat. Differences between production methods were in the range of 7.5 and 17%.</p><p>No unmistakable connections were found between any of the parameters and production method for the farm pairs. However, a tendency for more minerals in organic/biodynamic wheat was seen for all minerals but iron.</p><p>Due to unclean equipment, analyzing of cadmium contents could not be completed.</p>

Correlation between production method and mineral-, cadmium- and protein content were sought for Swedish winter wheat. The wheat was grown according to conventional, organic or biodynamic principles. The minerals; iron, zinc, magnesium, copper and the heavy metal cadmium were analyzed with atomic absorption spectroscopy. Protein was analyzed with elemental combustion analysis. All together, 17 samples were analyzed; nine from the still ongoing Bollerup field trial in Skåne and eight from four different farm pairs in the midst of Sweden. The Bollerup field trials showed that organic wheat had a higher concentration of iron than conventional. Both organic and biodynamic wheat had a higher concentration of zinc than conventional. Magnesium concentration was higher in biodynamic wheat than in conventional grown wheat. Differences between production methods were in the range of 7.5 and 17%. No unmistakable connections were found between any of the parameters and production method for the farm pairs. However, a tendency for more minerals in organic/biodynamic wheat was seen for all minerals but iron. Due to unclean equipment, analyzing of cadmium contents could not be completed.