Charles Franklin Schnabel (1895-1974) was an American agricultural chemist who became known as the father of wheatgrass. Dr. Schnabel opened the door to scientific research on cereal grass. After Schnabel's initial work in the mid 1920s that showed chickens nearly tripled their winter egg production when a small amount of cereal grass was added to their diet, he went on to find benefits with nearly every kind of livestock. His research documented larger litters, richer milk, more milk, less infant mortality, better fur and improved general health when a small amount of dehydrated cereal grass was added to the animal's food ration. In 1970, he accurately predicted, due to its climate similar to Johannesburg that, "San Diego will be the wheat grass capital of the United States."