Why is farmers’ market bread so ridiculously expensive?

That’s what’s happened with the Regional Grains Project, which has been replicated across the country from California’s CA Grain Campaign, Colorado’s Noble Grain Alliance, and the Maine Grain Alliance, to informal networks cropping up in places like Austin, Texas; Ann Arbor, Michigan; New Orleans, Louisiana, and even Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Canada. These efforts, along with increasing popular interest in whole-grain baking, fresh milling, and the advantages of sourdough baking, showcase how the local grains movement has matured. These are places where demand for healthy, flavorful food is being matched with economic viability and soil health for farmers and rural communities.

One of the clearest indicators that regional grain-sheds are starting to thrive is the rise of local bakeries. From Skowhegan, Maine to Spokane, Washington, cities large and small have seen a renaissance of whole-grain bakers using freshly milled flour. And though local grains and can be more expensive than commodity counterparts—it’s not uncommon to find a loaf of bread priced at $10 or more—their customers are apparently willing to pay for it. At least some Americans seem to accept that bread that costs more to produce, and is baked by skilled bakers who make sustainable livings, will also cost more to buy.

But, wait. This escalated pricing raises an important question about who gets to access these products, and in turn, reveals a critical inflection point in the regional grains revival. While we wait for capacity to be built, which will eventually decrease costs and raise the efficiencies of distribution for regional grains, who is the customer for $10-a-loaf, whole-grain bread?

Specialty bakers and heirloom grains growers also face up against a specific economic issue: Government programs, including subsidies, skew the actual cost of goods. The average wholesale cost for commodity wheat flour in this country runs about 46 cents a pound; organic commodity wheat can be priced slightly higher, and regional and small grains production closer to $1 a pound, if not more for specialty cereals like spelt, einkorn, and emmer. Most of these growers also practice better-than-average soil care compared to commodity growers who, while coming around on the issue of soil health, have also relied on taxpayers to facilitate cleanup and pay for the environmental externalities of commodity grain production. While commodity flour at retail is cheaper than local or regional grain, its relative cheapness is misleading—the hidden costs of production can be found in our tax bills, if not always on the price tag in the store.

When it comes down to it, the issue of market expansion requires more than building capacity. Education and promotion will continue to be important, as will finding viable intersections between the grains movement and public health outreach groups, nutritionists, and food policy councils, who have all been helpful in gaining local foods leverage in school districts, prisons, and other public-sector agencies.

It will require the will of the whole community of growers, millers, bakers, and even eaters to generate and sustain good price points on foods made with local grains. Access is about many things beyond just putting more of a certain kind of food in front of people. Regional grain advocates could fold that reality into their existing efforts to build awareness around the regional grain-shed.

But before we lose ourselves entirely in building capacity for regional grains themselves, it is critical to take a step back and build capacity for small-scale entrepreneurs to access capital and eaters to purchase at the price points farmers, millers, and bakers require to survive.