Brian Walker didn’t start in a corner office—he started six weeks out of high school as a “sample jockey” in a flour mill, learning the business from union millers, lab mentors, and long days when the mill ran. More than 45 years later, his career spans Seaboard, Cargill, Ardent Mills, and Miller Milling—and he’s seen the milling industry transform through consolidation, shifting competition, and changing norms around sharing crop-quality information.
In this episode, Brian connects the dots from farm to flour to finished bread: how high-speed bakeries increased stress on dough performance, how ingredient/tool changes (like moving away from potassium bromate and toward enzymes) affected quality, why varieties and disease resistance became even more critical, and how “extended shelf life” reshaped the bread supply chain (and consumer expectations). He closes with practical career advice: work hard, get involved, and show up—because wheat is a people business.
