Mussolini’s war on pasta,The Italian dictator didn’t like pasta.  How could an Italian n

Mussolini’s war on pasta,The Italian dictator didn’t like pasta.  How could an Italian not like pasta? Mussolini’s goal for the future was to make Italy completely independent from the rest of the world in terms of resources, whether that meant conquering new territories or doing without.  During the 1930’s Italy important an incredible amount of grain in order to feed Italy’s pasta obsession.  Thus, in the 1930’s Mussolini began a campaign to rid Italy of pasta.  Of course even though Mussolini was a powerful dictator, he couldn’t just ban pasta, such an act would lead to nationwide outrage. However, he did try to discourage pasta consumption by levying taxes on the food, and by personally encouraging people to stop eating eat.  As a substitute, Mussolini advocated the consumption of rice, which he thought was easy to grow and more economical.  To spearhead his war on pasta, Mussolini turned to the Futurist Movement, an art and cultural movement whose aims were to modernize Italy. Often the Futurists and Italian fascists worked hand in hand to bring about political and cultural reform in Italy.  The Futurists began a massive propaganda campaign which demonized pasta, making claims that it lessened virility, causes pessimism, and decreases ambition.  The Futurist food movement could best be described by The Manifesto of Futurist Cooking, written personally by the Futurist Movement leader Filippo Marinetti.  In it he not only offered alternatives to traditional Italian cuisine, but outlined the principles of what Futurist cooking was all about.  Among its principles were the banning of pasta, the “use of perfumes and fragrances to enhance flavor”, the banning of the knife and fork, sculpted foods, especially meats, food that was to be looked at without being eaten, and the serving of food in small mouth sized portions.  The Furturists even went into the realm of the bizarre, cooking foods in autoclaves, and using ozonizers to give foods the smell of ozone.The Italian people were outraged by the movement, especially since most Futurist dishes were weird and tasted like shit.  Whole towns and cities signed petitions, and people outright refused to give up pasta or give into to Futurist cuisine.  The outrage of the Italian people reached fever pitch when Filippo Marinetti himself was once sighted eating a bowl of pasta.  Mussolini’s war on pasta continued through the 1930’s up to World War II, but saw no significant success. -- source link

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