Pasta of the future: climate-resistant wheat tested in Italy's Food Valley

In Emilia-Romagna, Italy's 'Food Valley', researchers are working on the pasta of the future by breeding climate-resistant wheat, according to a France 24 report published this week. The focus is on the staple's main ingredient — durum wheat — which is increasingly vulnerable to the heat and drought that have marked recent Italian summers.

The France 24 piece, by Natalia Mendoza, Laura Roudaut and Tommaso Marrone, highlights how technology is being deployed to protect one of the world's most beloved foods. The research comes as Italy grapples with its fourth heatwave of the summer, which has placed all 27 major cities under red alert and pushed temperatures close to 40C in some areas, according to the Guardian.

For Puglia, the stakes are existential. The region is one of Italy's primary durum wheat producers, and its fields have already been scarred by Xylella, the bacterium that has devastated olive groves across the Salento peninsula. A wheat variety that can withstand extreme heat would be a lifeline for southern farmers facing an uncertain climate future.