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> ...He wanted to wean Italy off of foreign wheat imports, which were becoming increasingly difficult to acquire amidst international sanctions and a suffering
by gabythenerd 4y ago
> ...He wanted to wean Italy off of foreign wheat imports, which were becoming increasingly difficult to acquire amidst international sanctions and a suffering domestic economy. Rice grew well in Northern Italy, so Mussolini sent free rice samples throughout the country and bombarded Italians with pro-rice propaganda.
How did pasta get so popular if they had to import the wheat? Seems they cannot produce enough for the whole population without imports even now, I would think that would make it expensive over staples thay they can grow themselves.
- juujian 4y agoNow, this is just a guess not backed up even by a google search, but being that Italians have been eating pasta since the Middle Ages, I would guess that it has something to do with Northern Italy being part of the Holy Roman Empire.
- sojournerc 4y agoUmm, northern Italy? Where do you think Rome is?
- triceratops 4y agoRome wasn't part of the HRE for a large part of its existence. The emperor was considered the continuation of the old Roman emperors, and was "holy" because the Pope crowned him. I'm not an expert on Italian geography or anything but I think of Rome as the beginning of southern Italy. Milan and Turin are the major cities I associate with north Italy. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_in_the_Holy_Roman_Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_in_the_Holy_Rom...
- rob74 4y agoMost Romans would probably frown at you for debating whether Rome is in northern or southern Italy. Rome is at the center of the world, or failing that, at least at the center of Italy!
- triceratops 4y agoOk so then it's definitely not Northern Italy :-)
- TheCoelacanth 4y agoWell, yes, as the old joke goes, the Holy Roman Empire wasn't holy, wasn't Roman and wasn't an Empire.
- piaste 4y agoVoltaire made that joke in the late 18th century, when the dying HRE had been reduced to a multi-confessional German confederation. The medieval HRE, especially the Carolingian one, had a much better claim to the titles.
- Bayart 4y agoThe Carolingian Empire isn't the HRE. The HRE started with the Ottonians.
- Turing_Machine 4y agoWikipedia says that the population of Italy nearly doubled between 1861 and 1936, this despite the fact that there was massive emigration of Italians to places like the United States and Argentina over the same period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Italy
- philwelch 4y agoWheat had been the staple food of the Italian peninsula since at least the days of Rome, though the Romans ate bread rather than pasta. It was the staple they could grow themselves.
- Eleison23 4y ago[dead]
- xeromal 4y agoRomans were importing grain from Egypt in the 0s so I guess Italy has been doing so long it didn't matter.
- masklinn 4y ago> How did pasta get so popular if they had to import the wheat? It didn’t. The population increased and the country didn’t have the wheat-growing regions it would have needed to match. And pasta is not the only wheat sink, bread and other doughs (e.g. pizza) are generally wheat based as well.
- avereveard 4y agoThose are different wheats
- SamBam 4y agoYou still have to import most of them.
- epolanski 4y agoFun fact, most italian pasta brands use american and canadian grains. We just don't have much wheat, never had it even in ancient times. With EU we produce even less of it as we have benefits to focus on farming other specialties or produce cheese and meat.
- red-iron-pine 4y agoThe US is the #1 exporter of grain worldwide. Not the #1 producer, not the #1 consumer -- that's China -- but the #1 exporter. So much produced that they can ship more than anyone. It is a fantastic source of American soft power. And also explains why Americans are so soft around the waist.
- c3534l 4y agoSpecialize and trade. If other regions are really good at farming wheat, why bother farming it yourself when you can produce fish and grapes?
- fsckboy 4y agotrade is ruled by comparative advantage: If country A is better at producing wheat, and country A is also better at producing fish, country B should focus on producing the one which it is less comparatively bad at producing, and then trade. That will give them the highest GDP/income.
- pigsty 4y agoEast Asia imports loads of wheat, yet wheat noodle dishes and breads are still popular. In peacetime, it’s usually better to just import cheap things like grains and focus more on making high value foods. Italy probably makes good money selling their cheese worldwide—they and France are basically synonymous with good, expensive cheese. Nobody will pay a premium for Italian wheat though.