Italy trying to ban factory meat

[dead0man]

Reuters

Italy's government on Tuesday approved a bill banning the use of laboratory-produced food and animal feed as it aims to safeguard the country's agri-food heritage, its agriculture minister told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting.

If the proposal is passed by parliament, Italian industry will not be allowed to produce food or feed "from cell cultures or tissues derived from vertebrate animals", the bill seen by Reuters said.

"Laboratory products in our opinion do not guarantee quality, well-being and the protection of our culture, our tradition," said Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, a senior member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy party.

Meloni's nationalist administration has pledged to shield Italy's food from technological innovations seen as harmful, and renamed the agriculture ministry the "ministry for agriculture and food sovereignty".

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Destroying the enviorment to protect traditions, expected.

[Lord Halifax]

Destroying the environment to protect traditions, expected.

in a country where food is as culturally important as Italy, yes.

[Antonio the Sixth]

This is pathetic. This government genuinely cannot stop moving from silly culture war issue to silly culture war issue in a frantic effort to draw attention away from a perpetually stagnating economy. Voters will have to wisen up eventually.

[It's Perro Sanxe wot won it]

So Italy is making government policy out of meaningless cliché slogans like "I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in the pod".

[Torie]

Under EU rules, can Italy stop the import of factory meat from other EU members?

[CumbrianLefty]

Under EU rules, can Italy stop the import of factory meat from other EU members?

Probably not?

Which of course makes this even more pointless, if true.

[DavidB.]

Good decision. Some things are still holy in this world. Italian cuisine is one of them.

[Battista Minola 1616]

This is pathetic. This government genuinely cannot stop moving from silly culture war issue to silly culture war issue in a frantic effort to draw attention away from a perpetually stagnating economy. Voters will have to wisen up eventually.

My reaction to this is "lol" but to be fair I am not sure whether this government passing a serious agenda would be better or worse. Most of all I wish they concentrated on PNRR investments.

[ingemann]

Under EU rules, can Italy stop the import of factory meat from other EU members?

No, but they can work to get it banned on EU level, of course that will fail for several reasons. Primarily because the countries with focus on high tech agriculture will work against, but also because of lack health concern.