Durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.), one of the first crops to be domesticated, originally came to us from the Levant Region of the Near East and the Ethiopian Highlands about 10,000 years ago. Man has depended upon the wheat plant for himself and his beasts of burden for thousands of years. It is now cultivated and traded worldwide. A global wheat failure would be a disaster that few nations could survive. Wheat cultivation was introduced into Mexico in 1521 by early colonizers, but it did not appear in the territory that would later become Canada and the United States until 1602 with the arrival of the first explorers, settlers, and adventurers. After introduction, the main wheat production today comes from Montana, North Dakota, and Kansas among others in the U.S. and mainly the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada. In the state of California, the San Joaquin Valley and the Imperial Valley are the two growing areas. According to FAO (2010), world production of both durum and bread wheat was 651 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize (844 million tons) and rice (672 million tons). U.S. durum wheat production in 2012 was 1.5 million tons, but due to demand and upward moving prices the 2012-2013 projected yields is expected to be 2.5 million tons. However, since the U.S. also exports half of durum wheat production and because pizzas and pasta are very popular, significant imports of durum wheat is also needed to fulfill the total demand. Durum wheat in general commands higher prices in the world market than bread wheat. There are many other uses of durum wheat besides pasta and pizzas. For example durum wheat is extensively used in biscuit-making. However, it is the yellow endosperm of durum wheat that gives pasta its familiar color. The ground endosperm of durum wheat is called semolina. There are several major pasta-makers both domestic and foreign. Italian pasta-makers like Barilla and De Cecco are famous in the U.S. due to their aggressive advertising campaigns. A world without pasta seems inconceivable.