For more than 140 years, Kansas has been known as the nation’s breadbasket, reports the High Plains Journal.
Yet, on a hot afternoon in June, Kansas State University’s Northwest Area Agronomist Lucas Haag walked past the ripening hard red winter wheat to a swath of research plots that he says could be the region’s next cash crop.
Pasta.
While K-State continues its work on improving winter wheat varieties, Haag and others at the university are also developing winter durum varieties that could be used to create macaroni, spaghetti or another of the 350 pasta shapes available.
