In 1930, Italian Futurists led by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti declared that pasta should be replaced with futurists foods and in the meantime, rice. He co-wrote ‘Manifesto of Futurist Cooking’ which stated that pasta was the cause of Italy’s problems and holding the country back from being a technological powerhouse. Benito Mussolini supported the futurist ideas and, if not for Mussolini’s need to court an ally in Hitler during WWII (who hated futurism causing Mussolini to distance himself from Marinetti), they might have succeeded in banning pasta.