Synthetic foods: Italy passes a bill to ban them!

Synthetic food industry is growing rapidly. Foods produced in the laboratory might become food of the future. But Italy has passed a bill that bans the production and sales of these synthetic foods. Doing so would attract a heavy penalty.

Italy and it’s new bill on synthetic foods

Due to food insecurity to feed the growing population of the world and environmental effects due to current methods of growing food, scientists are turning to artificial modes of procuring food in order to feed hungry mouths. Laboratory grown meat is one such method wherein cell cultures are used to develop meat. This would be healthy, tasty, and save the planet, as per the claims. But not all country governments are in favor of such synthetic foods.

Italy’s right wing government is upset with such artificial foods. It wants to preserve Italian food heritage as well as the health of its citizens. Hence, the government has passed a bill on it in its Parliament.

According to this bill, laboratory grown meat and all such laboratory foods are banned from production and sales. Anyone disobeying this rule would have to pay a heavy penalty for it. The fines would be as high as €60,000 (£53,000).

The Italian farmers’ lobby is extremely pleased with this move and it has praised it’s government for the revolutionary move. Francesco Lollobrigida is in charge of the new rebranded ministry called the ministry for agriculture and food sovereignty. Francesco spoke about the reputation and importance of the food tradition of Italy.

Animal welfare groups’ disappointment

But the animal welfare groups are not happy with this bill. These groups were trying to save the animals and eradicate animal cruelty. Hence when artificial meat was being developed, it raised hopes for them that animal cruelty would end. And now this new bill seems to abolish lab grown meat. This would imply that people would continue to kill animals for their meat.

Also environmentalists were campaigning to reduce meat consumption and animal rearing for it in order to save the planet. The practice of rearing animals for meat involves a lot of land and water usage and emits a lot of carbon. This harms the environment and causes global warming.

This climate change is in turn detrimental for human health as well as the health of the plants and crops. This could lead to more food shortages in the future. Artificial foods seemed to be a solution to the problem. And now the ban on them means one will have to look for other ways to save animals, planet and health of humans.

The Italian Government’s say

Francesco said:

“Laboratory products do not guarantee quality, well-being and the protection of the Italian food and wine culture and tradition, to which part of our tradition is linked.”

The association of agricultural entrepreneurs and farmers, Coldiretti had collected fifty lakhs signatures in favor of this move. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also signed it. She said:

“We could only celebrate with our farmers a measure that puts our farmers in the vanguard, not just on the issue of defending excellence… but also in defending consumers,”

Paolo Zanetti, the head of dairy industry group Assolatte, has also appreciated the new bill. Recently, the Italian government also banned use of flour derived from locusts and crickets in pizza bases and pastas. Italy is proud of its Mediterranean diet which is no.1 in the world.

Also, read Lab grown chicken of Upside Foods gets US FDA approval!

It is to be seen how Italy can stop sale of lab grown meat if the European Union approves its production and sale in the EU.