Italian groups stage pasta strike to protest price hike

Friday, September 14, 2007
AP

MILAN, Italy -- Consumer groups organized nationwide protests Thursday to draw attention to the burden placed on families by the rising cost of food -- especially on Italians' beloved staple, pasta. The price of basic commodities are being driven up by middlemen, while farmers and producers earnings remain flat, activists said at protests in Rome, Milan and Palermo. In the case of pasta, Italians will soon be paying up to 20 percent more for their daily serving, be it fettuccine, linguine or spaghetti. Thursday's one-day strike was not against eating it, but against buying it.