Pasta? Basta!

Last week Jacques Diouf, director-general of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, told the Financial Times that skyrocketing prices for basic food imports carried "potential for social tension, leading to social reactions and eventually even political problems."

Diouf was talking about developing countries, but the strain created by surging worldwide wheat prices has now appeared in an industrial nation: Italy.

Italian consumer groups called a one-day strike today against buying pasta, in protest of a nearly 20 percent rise in the foodstuff's price.

But it's not simply the price increase that has Italians willing to give up their fettuccine and rigatoni for a day; it's the disconnect they see between that and farmers' earnings.

The leader of the Italian farm lobby says that "prices increase by five times between production and consumption," while farmers' earnings remain flat.

That claim doesn't match up with how economists see things: depleting wheat stocks are driving wheat futures to record prices, putting money in the pockets of producers. The U.S. agriculture department cut global wheat production forecasts on Wednesday as big exporters like Australia and Canada struggle with their crop, and all the while global consumption continues to rise, with demand from ethanol production creating a further market crunch.

It seems, at least according to consumer groups, that Italian farmers aren't seeing the same upside as producers elsewhere are.

Oddly, the protest's organizers attempted to soothe Italy's day-long break from buying their favorite dietary staple by handing out free milk, bread, and...pasta.

Liz Gunnison