Over a 10-by-2-foot patch of former lawn, I sowed 1 ounce of hulless oat seed, and at harvest, I filled a 2-gallon tub with unthreshed oats. Eventually, this would yield 1 1/2 quarts of whole oats ...

Some foods made with whole oats, such as oatmeal, could soon claim to be "low fat" under a U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposal released on Monday.