I read the same article - I questioned that whole premis and this one too:

Sole owner tactic. In a sole proprietorship in which the spouse is not part of the operation, a simple way to manage self-employment tax is for the operator to hire the spouse (or offspring) and pay wages in grain, Fulton said.

Paying wages in grain is simply a documented transfer (once a month or quarterly) of bushels from the employer to the employee. The value of the grain on the date of transfer is the dollar amount that goes on the W-2, Fulton said. Although the spouse must pay income tax on the grain, the W-2 has no payroll or self-employment tax withholdings taken on it.

The operator can then put the spouse on a benefit plan that pays health insurance and—if there are no non-family employees—medical expenses, which become fully tax deductible.

“This eliminates a lot of self-employment income, but doesn’t change cash flow because the owner had those expenses anyway,” Fulton said.

Wouldn't the spouse have to pay SE tax when reporting W-2 income at the end of the year?