Click to play videoRome (Italy): Italian pasta is simply the best in the world. It is made with durum wheat.
Italy grows a lot of the wheat, but the Italians eat a lot of pasta so the country must import half of its durum wheat needs to satisfy demand.
However, durum wheat is also increasingly sold as a bio-fuel to produce ethanol as it is thought by many to be better for the environment than gasoline, and is generating stronger than usual demand on the world market at a time when production is down worldwide because of the weather and global warming.
This has turned into a crisis for Italy which will now have to pay more for the durum wheat.
Says President Italy Pasta Manufacturers, Mario Rummo, "The crisis is very important because for probably the first time, the stocks of durum wheat are very low and we are having a lot of problems in finding the produce."
This will directly affect the Italians and their pasta eating habit for they will have to pay up to 20 per cent more now for their favourite meal.
The reality, however, does not seem to have sunk in as talk of sacrificing pasta for the environment draws laughter in popular Roman restaurants. They say that linking the price of pasta to global warming will not make people in this country care more about the environment.
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