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Who criticizes and why the Meloni government ban on synthetic meat

2 years ago babelfish

Who criticizes and why the Meloni government ban on synthetic meat

For some, the ban on synthetic meat is a defense of Made in Italy, for others, a contradictory choice. Facts, insights and controversies

The ban on synthetic meat, "the first in the world", as claimed by the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (Masaf), Francesco Lollobrigida (Fratelli d'Italia), not only causes animal rights and environmentalists to revolt but also many experts.

Here's who they are and why they say Italy can't afford to ban lab-grown meat.

THE IMPORT CANNOT STOP…

Despite Minister Lollobrigida with the decree against cultivated meat – "synthetic" for those who want it not to reach Italian tables – to "ensure the highest level of protection of citizens' health and preserve the agri-food heritage, as a set of products that express the process of socio-economic and cultural evolution of Italy, of strategic importance on the territory for the national interest”, as Start wrote yesterday, the freedom of movement of goods envisaged by the European Union prevents the implementation of such a prohibition.

This is the case with cricket flour, for which the minister, after having promised battle, could do nothing but limit himself to demanding separate shelves and clear labelling.

…AND THE NUMBERS SAY IT

But in addition to the legislation, it is the numbers of Italy's meat imports that prove it. As observed by Chicco Testa, manager (former president of Enel), entrepreneur and current president of Fise-Assoambiente, in a message sent to the director of the Foglio , Claudio Cerasa, trivially "national meat barely satisfies 50 percent of national consumption ”.

In fact, according to Istat data cited by Testa, “every year we import about 300,000 tons of beef, 1 million tons of pork and about 50,000 tons of poultry and horsemeat. Therefore, more than defending national meat, it will be defense of Danish, Argentinian meat, etc.”.

“In the meantime – continues the economist – let's penalize the Italian agro-food industry which is a master in processing and transformation. As a debut of food sovereignty, it's not bad. When will a law prohibiting Coca-Cola in favor of chinotto, gazzosa and citron?”.

THE PARADOX OF THE DECREE

But most likely, if the EU authorizes cultivated meat, along with imported cattle, pigs and poultry, we will end up importing that too, crippling startups and innovative companies that could have seen the light of day in Italy, not to mention development of research.

As Il Foglio writes, “the paradoxical result, just like for GMOs, would be that Italians could indeed consume synthetic meat but only if it is not produced in Italy. In short, it would prove to be a law against Made in Italy”.

IS IT REALLY RISKY TO YOUR HEALTH?

In the meantime, experts have also spoken out on the health risks feared by the government and by associations such as Coldiretti .

Federico Pio Fabrizio, Postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Oncology of the IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, for example, explained in his tweets how already today "every day we eat synthetic compounds that are added to food to improve its shelf life (shelf life, ed ) and sensorial perception”, with the difference that, in the case of cultured meat, “they would not be hidden inside a product but would themselves become a product”.

The researcher also explained how misleading the dichotomy between "natural" and "artificial" meat is, recalling how today there is very little natural in the processes involved today in the production of meat on an industrial scale between intensive farming and the abuse of drugs, hormones and antibiotics.

THE UNSUSTAINABLE UNSUSTAINABILITY OF FARMS

In La Stampa Antonella Viola, biologist, researcher and professor at the University of Padua, observes that in addition to the ethical and personal choices of whether or not to eat meat, the problem is much more concrete.

Speaking of intensive farming, Viola underlines, in fact, that "they represent an enormous risk of zoonosis, i.e. infectious diseases transmitted to humans by animals, and are the main cause of antibiotic resistance, that terrifying problem linked to the appearance of resistant bacteria to antibiotics".

"Not only that", continues the researcher, "the production of meat has a huge impact on the environment : it pollutes, consumes soil and water and is among the most important causes of climate change underway". Just think of the current drought which will make food production increasingly difficult and which will cause food prices to rise.

So there are two options: "either give up the consumption of meat or find new ways of producing it".

Like Fabrizio, Viola recalls that cultured meat is "produced in an extremely controlled environment and free from contamination by pathogens dangerous to human health […] it does not contain hormones or antibiotics and this potentially makes it much safer for our health ”.

For the biologist, therefore, "an ideological position has been chosen that protects the interests of a few and, once again, treats scientific research with arrogance and distrust".

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/chi-critica-e-perche-il-bando-del-governo-meloni-alla-carne-sintetica/ on Thu, 30 Mar 2023 13:34:31 +0000.