On a recent warm, late-summer day, as many dry edible bean growers in Nebraska were watching their fields turn color and preparing for harvest, four scientists paced through a bean field north of Scottsbluff made up of hundreds of tiny plots, each one a different line or type of bean – representing different varieties of dry beans from all over the world.
Farmers in this area grow mainly pinto beans, great northern, and light red kidneys, and smaller amounts of others such as black beans, navies, and chickpeas.
