Italy bans the sale of cultivated meat, they want nothing to do with it for now
Do you remember the mammoth-meat meatball? No, it wasn’t made from the meat of a stray mammoth that was still wandering around somewhere. It was made from cultivated meat, developed in a lab. According to some, cultivated meat is the future. Others are horrified by it. Italy is banning its sale, so what’s the situation in the Netherlands?
The sale of cultivated meat has not (yet) been officially approved in Europe. The European regulator has not yet given companies permission to sell cultivated meat. Nevertheless, the Italian government is already putting a stop to it. It is not following countries such as Singapore and the United States, which have accepted the sale of cultivated meat.
Cultivated meat?
High CO2 emissions, large-scale consumption of land and water, high transport costs; it is not without reason that many meat alternatives are appearing on the market. We are familiar with vegetarian and vegan products by now. The latest development is cultivated meat. It is made from a few cells from an animal, which grow into a full-fledged piece of meat in a lab. Its biggest advantage? Far fewer greenhouse gases are emitted than in traditional meat production.
Anti-cultivated-meat law
The Italian government is not in favor of this development, however. It gives two reasons for this. First of all, there are doubts about the healthiness of cultivated meat. After all, the meat does not come from a real cow or chicken. So how healthy is such a piece of laboratory meat for humans? In addition, the government fears that cultivated meat will endanger Italy’s vital livestock sector. Livestock farming must remain part of the national heritage, they say. Italian Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida says that cultivated meat “breaks the virtuous relationship between the land and people.” Italian agricultural interest groups completely agree. They want nothing to do with the so-called “Frankenstein meat.”
There are also opponents of the Italian government’s plans. Opposition parties find it ridiculous that the government wants to block innovation. Moreover, there are rules within Europe for an internal free market. This anti-cultivated-meat law would directly conflict with those rules. Companies that ultimately decide to buy cultivated meat anyway have been warned. They can expect a fine of between 10,000 and 60,000 euros.
Cultivated meat in the Netherlands
It will be some time before Italy really needs to worry about cultivated meat. It will probably take years before the approval process of the European Food Safety Authority EFSA is completed. If that happens, we will probably be able to buy cultivated meat here in the Netherlands. According to Ceel Elemans, sector specialist Food at ING, a quarter of our population is open to cultivated meat. But it must be tasty, affordable and produced sustainably.
Also read:
- What will be on the menu in 2040?
- Remarkable: sales of meat and dairy alternatives have fallen this year
- Aha: this is where the proteins in meat alternatives come from
Sources: NU.nl, ING, NOS
