the early 1930s, mussolini and his fascists imposed import bans on various foreign goods. this lead to food shortages, malnutrition and a lack of wheat which raised the prospect of italian tables with no pasta. (speaks italian) in typical style, rather than lifting the import bans mussolini tried to convince italians that eating pasta would make them weak, lazy and even sexually impotent and that a high protein diet would make them more productive and war-like. the campaign was clearly not a success. when the fascism arrived a big part of italy is with mussolini. yeah. .but 30-40% is against mussolini. in fact pasta actually became a powerful symbol of the resistance against his fascist regime. armed with their guns