So they're banning what's likely the "end all, be all" meat replacement in the (hopefully not so distant) future just so that being a "livestock farmer" remains viable?
‘In defence of health, of the Italian production system, of thousands of jobs, of our culture and tradition, with the law approved today, Italy is the first nation in the world to be safe from the social and economic risks of synthetic food,’
Health? Yeah, get back to me the next time there's an outbreak of mad cow disease, swine flu, or bird flu and say that to my face.
Jobs? The synthetic meat isn't going to make itself, and there will always be a market for "organic" meat in any case.
Tradition? The human race's oldest and most persistent fallacy. The democracy of the dead.
This is shortsighted. This guys sounds exactly like the idiot lawmakers here in America who said solar panels and electric cars will never catch on, so what's the point in investing in them now?
I wonder how much money the country makes by protecting those traditional methods of producing meats and exporting their products at high prices. Maybe that's what they're after. 🤔
We have a really stupid minister in charge of this stuff. And i mean it in the truest sense of the word, this guy has a room temperature iq.
Anyways, the sale ban will probably fail in court, the production ban will only harm the italian industry because sure as hell they can't stop european synthetic meat from entering the country.
They can't stop synth meat coming in at the minute, but they can after they decide to Italeave... that doesn't sound as good as Brexit, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened.
Well that's understandable. I too want my meat to have been grown in its own shit and be pumped full of antibiotics and let's not forget the secret incredient: cruelty.
Lab-grown meat is equated to synthetic ingredients and ultra-processed foods which are known to raise health problems (but are not banned, not all additives at least and not everywhere).
Considering how politics goes these days, the producers of cultivated meat just hadn't a grip on the ministry as strong as the farmer lobby. No ideological or public health reason whatsoever. And it's not Italy, it's just politics and business everywhere.
Today it's Italy's turn, maybe tomorrow someone else will be on the hot seat.
and ultra-processed foods which are known to raise health problems
The data on this are very dubious at best. Most researchers can't even agree on a definition of what they are. Corelation studies should always be taken with a grain of salt.
Fake news. There's a proposal from March, it is not a law. And it's so stupid that it bans production, not import (just to fuck over an already stalling economy)
But don't spread fake news.
Edit: found article on sole24ore. You are right and our government is a bunch of retarded.
BBC article states "Italian MPs have voted to back a law banning the production, sale or import of cultivated meat or animal feed, in what the right-wing government calls a defence of Italian tradition."
Please, non-Italians, pay attention: that has nothing to do with Italian cuisine, no chefs, traditional groups or whatsoever said anything about cultivated meat. And no dumb scientist said anything either.
It's just some bigot, retrograde minister of ours.
Is that what the people want, or some big key to power that stands to inevitably lose out? If other countries transition out of meat livestock isn't it pointless to handicap yourself?
Italian parma ham and such is quite famous and Italians seem to take their authentic cuisine very seriously. Supposedly there afraid that low quality fake meat will overrun the current market. I imagine the meet industry there is quite powerful though so assume lobbying was part of this.
They've cited health, yet I can't seem to find the health risk argument. Other than that, standard Italian politics where representatives are changed quite often.
Italy you say? The one EU member that has repeatedly used its power to lock down ag requirements and protections for it own foods for the other member states?
The only upside is that gabbagol is delicious, and who would want to fuck that up?
Slightly off-topic, but, is there a Lemmy community for cellular agriculture, akin to r/wheresthebeef? That's one of the few remaining subreddits I haven't found a Lemmy replacement for yet.
Is this something people do at home Grow their own meats?
Not yet, and possibly not ever. Most current development is limited to academic institutions and small startup companies. But who knows what the future brings? Perhaps one day people will grow steaks at home similar to how one might ferment their own beer or yogurt. My guess is that it would be more trouble than it's worth for the average people though.
Similar thing happening Romania too, it's disheartening but in a country where the meat industry was already hit hard I can understand the economic reasons behind it, but that doesn't mean I'm a fan of it.
Of course a lot of people are also just afraid of anything synthetic and "unnatural", falling into the same category as GMOs.
The country should be able to subsidise short-term economic failure, but it shouldn't hold afloat something that is bound to die (or reduce in size), especially through legal means. It goes against capitalism that underpins that economy, and common sense.... Things change, and businesses die.
Italy has been on a roll of incredibly stupid and incompetent bills lately.
Working on literally everything except insuring their people can fucking afford food.
I disagree with that statement generally, but anyway, you can't catch cancer. You can catch a disease that causes cancer, but eating cancer itself wouldn't give you cancer. You can however catch prion disease... And these can live in real flesh/meat you get from a shop.
Also, there will be ground up cancer in processed meat. I guarantee it. You don't think farm animals get cancer?