In January, Israeli meat company Aleph Farms created steaks in a lab – Source: AP
Its far-right government Italy promotes bill to ban lab-grown synthetic meatin an effort to protect health and Italian cuisine.
If the bill becomes law, this ban in practice will result in fines of over €60,000.
Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister of Agriculture, emphasized the importance of traditional Italian food, while the agricultural/livestock lobbies welcomed the initiative.
“Laboratory products do not guarantee the quality, well-being and protection of the culture and tradition of Italian food and wine, with which our tradition is linked,” notes Lollobrigida, who comes from the ranks of the far-right Giorgia Meloni Sisters.
The ongoing bill approved yesterday, Tuesday, by the ministers, aims to ban synthetic food produced by laboratory methods from animal cells, without killing animals. It comes as a continuation of a series of government decrees that prohibit the use of flour derived from insects – such as crickets and locusts – for the preparation of pizza or pasta.
Ministers cite the famous Mediterranean diet as the motivation behind both of these initiatives.
However, the development is a huge blow to animal welfare groups, which stress that lab-grown meat would offer a sustainable solution to a range of problems, including protecting the environment from carbon dioxide emissions and safeguarding public health. .
As noted by the International Organization for Animal Protection (Oipa), lab-grown meat, although it comes from animal cells, is an “ethical alternative” that does not require the slaughter of animals, does not harm the their well-being, nor environmental sustainability and food security.
Coldiretti (Italy’s largest agricultural union) and other organizations and lobbies, organized a campaign to protect “natural food against synthetic”, managing to gather in the last months half a million signatures, including Prime Minister Meloni.
However, as analysts comment, even if the bill is passed, Italy will ultimately not be able to avoid the sale of synthetic meat produced within the EU, after the necessary licensing, due to the free circulation of goods and services.
It is noted that last November the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for the first time the marketing of a chicken meat product that has been developed by laboratory methods with animal cells as raw material and is intended for human consumption.
Source: BBC
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