Italy proposes ban on lab-grown food to preserve its gastronomic heritage
At the beginning of April, first female Prime Minister of Italy Georgia Meloni’s government, with approval by Ministers, proposed a ban on the production and market of all “synthetic foods” including lab-produced fish, synthetic milk and singles out meat created as a result of cultivated cells. The draft law, if passed, would be introduced to protect its local farmers, and violation of the country’s new laws would result in fines ranging from €10,000 to €60,000.
For our industry, this is a fascinating shift in the changing trend towards alternative proteins and us needing to find a voice for remaining firmly in the food system. In Italy’s case, Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, a senior member of Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, clearly communicated the opposite - that indeed;
“Laboratory products in our opinion do not guarantee quality, well-being and the protection of our culture and our tradition”
Furthermore, Coldiretti, President of Ettore Prandini, feels strongly that young farmers, who have chosen to build their futures in the ag industry, would be “the first victims of the spread of synthetic food, which aims to replace natural foods produced in the countryside with those made in the laboratory.”
What does this mean for industry?
What could be a game changer for industry, is if any other European countries start to mimic this mindset and follow suit, or if this trend spreads even further globally. The reasons for countries doing so could mirror Italy’s, who feel “duty to lead the way in food policies to protect citizens and businesses," said Ettore Prandini, President of Agriculture company Coldiretti. At the moment, that is a long way off and for now we know that Italy’s show of faith in the livestock industry has coincided with other countries in the European Union putting in laws to decrease livestock numbers. Last year, The Netherlands government announced the closure of 3000 farms after a court ordered a “nitrogen crisis” and since, other countries like Belgium have sprung up, where the government has also been planning similar nitrogen-related legislation to The Netherlands. However, neither the European Food Safety Authority or its UK equivalent has yet received a novel food dossier from a company making cell-based meat, so in many countries the progress is slow and with time for input from industry. Australian professor Paul Wood further suggests it will be a while before we see any cell-based meat products registered in Europe given the need to use recombinant growth factors in the manufacturing process.
Further afield, only a handful of other countries are ploughing ahead with the progression of cultivated meats as we have reported within the GMA insights reports recently. Over the last four months, two separate cultivated meat products (one being GOOD Meat shared in last month’s report) have successfully passed the United States Food and Drug Administration’s pre-market safety review and will hit shelves for consumption by as soon as 2028.
Meanwhile, Italy stands strong in their positioning for the proposed ban and justified a draft law of this kind, in loyal support of local farmers. The opposition think the proposed ban contains misinformation and may damage efforts to make agri-food systems more sustainable or offer consumers other protein choices. Alice Ravenscroft, head of policy at the Good Food Institute Europe, said the passing of such a law, among other things, would:
“hold back climate mitigation efforts, and Italy would be left behind as the rest of Europe and the world progresses towards a more sustainable and secure food system.”
While groups like these work on the development and marketing of cultivated meat, Professor Paul Wood recently addressed the Queensland Rural Press Club to talk about the hard road ahead for the new alternative protein industry and to tell livestock producers not to sell to farm in his opinion.
For now, it seems the right path forward is to carry on with an open and realistic mindset that cultivated meat will find its way into the protein supply chain in some way, even if many years off, and to work with each other and support efforts that integrate with those in conventional agriculture to better achieve national climate and food systems transformation.
Click above to listen to Prof. Paul Wood talk about the limits to growth for precision fermentation.