Italy is moving to become the first country in the world to ban its companies from producing lab-cultivated meat, threatening fines of up to €60,000.
Upon introducing the bill to the Senate, the country’s Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Minister, Francesco Lollobrigida, said:
Singapore became the first country to give the green light to human consumption of cultivated meat in 2020. The US Food and Drug administration followed in November 2022.
And in the EU? Cell-based agriculture is still being researched, but the bloc’s Food and Safety Authority says it’s a “promising solution” towards achieving its ambitious environmental goals.
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If the EU approves cultivated food, the proposed bill won’t be enough to keep it away “from the tables of the Italians”, as promised by Italy’s Agriculture Minister.
Yes, it does ban Italian companies from producing it, but doesn’t prevent foreign businesses from exporting it to Italy.
The opposition argued that this would only create a competitive disadvantage for Italian businesses, instead of protecting them.
