Groceries
Criticism of the ban on laboratory meat in Italy
Beef is cut: Italy bans the production and sale of laboratory meat. photo
© Oliver Berg/dpa
The debate is coming to a head: opposition parties and animal protection associations criticize the blanket ban on laboratory meat in Italy and question its legality.
Più Europa MP Riccardo Magi described the decision to ban the production and sale of lab-grown meat as “anti-scientific and anti-European, but also unconstitutional.”
The Chamber of Deputies in Rome passed a corresponding bill on Thursday that had already been approved by the Senate. Italy is the first country in Europe to introduce such a ban, as reported by the Ansa news agency. The ban was very important to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government. She repeatedly emphasized that this would protect Italian tradition and cuisine as well as their products.
To produce meat in the laboratory, stem cells are taken from living animals and end up in a culture fluid made up of fats, amino acids, vitamins, minerals and sugar. There they multiply and grow into muscle tissue.
Several animal protection groups called Thursday’s decision an “ideological ban.” In fact, laboratory meat has never been on the market in Italy – critics therefore criticize the project as a sham debate. The Coldiretti agricultural association, however, welcomed large parts of the new law. Above all, the ban on using everyday terms for plant-based alternative products, such as plant-based burger or veggie sausage, is correct.