AGRICULTURAL COSTS: FOR EACH EURO SPENT ON PASTA ONLY 8 CENTS SPENT FOR WHEAT. AND THE NEED FOR AGRICULTURALLY BASED BIOFUELS

For each euro that is spent on pasta no more than 8 cents go to paying for the wheat used to make it, that which is produced by farmers, and this value is even lower for fresh pasta. Coldiretti recently noted that though the costs of wheat-based products have greatly increased for consumers, the actual cost of wheat has remained the same since the 1980’s.

Coldiretti pointed out that at a time when wheat, after years of continuous decreases in costs, is finally having a sufficient rebound, and the alarm caused by this is unjustifiable and with solely speculative purposes for the bread, pasta, and sweets industries. It is important to remember that with one kilo of wheat, at a price of about 20 cents per kilo, it is possible to produce 1 kilo of bread by basically adding water.
This is then sold to consumers for 2.5 euros per kilo for normal bread varieties and up to 5 euros or more for more elaborate breads. And sweets are sold at an even higher cost.
The risk is that the alarm, as well as halting the development of alternative energies that are a determining factor in combating climatic changes, also serve to cover the willingness to increase imports from abroad that are then sold as ”Made in Italy” goods without any guarantees on labels.

In Italy, serious delays in the development of alternative energy based on national agricultural production sources have also been registered. Today, there is still no sign of biofuels at gas stations regardless of goals set by the government that foresee biofuels like biodiesel and bioethanol (that are obtained from agricultural production) as at least 1% of all fuel distribution in Italy by 2007.
This would mean cultivating 273,000 hectares of sunflowers or rape seed for use as energy producing material in Italy.
And these values must then be multiplied five times in order to reach the goals set by the European Union for the substitution of petroleum based fuels with biofuels for a 5.75% of total fuel used.

The biofuels derived from agricultural cultivation (and which Italy produces in abundance), in particular bioethanol, are produced through methods of fermentation and distillation of sugar materials, starches or by-products like cereals, sugar beets and remains from wine distillation, while biodiesel is derived from the esterification of vegetable oils obtained from the cultivation of crops like rape seed and sunflower.
With biodiesel – concluded Coldiretti – it is possible to reduce hydrocarbon emissions by 80% and particulates and dusts by 50%, while with bioethanol, hydrocarbon emissions would be reduced by 50% and sulphur dioxide by over 70%, as well as contained reductions in particulates and dusts.