Italy has backed a bill that would ban lab-grown meats and other synthetic foods from the country, dealing a massive blow to synthetic meat investor Bill Gates and ‘Green Agenda’ advocates.
The Italian government’s move to ban lab-grown meats is reported to protect food heritage in Italy.
If the proposals become law, those who violate the ban could be fined up to €60,000.
Francesco Lollobrigida, the head of the ministry for agriculture and food sovereignty, praised the move as an important step in protecting Italy’s food tradition.
Farmers also praised the move.
As The Guardian reported, Coldiretti, Italy’s biggest farmers’ association, lobbied for the ban, arguing that homegrown produce needs to be shielded from “the attacks of multinational companies.”
But it was a massive blow for green agenda advocates and lab meat investor Bill Gates, who claim synthetic meat protects the environment from carbon emissions.
Despite Gates’ touted benefits of lab-grown meats, a panel of scientists last year expressed “serious safety concerns” about Bill Gates’ plan to “revolutionize the future of food” with “lab-grown meat,” which is produced by taking biopsied stem cells from a living animal and using them to grow meat in a biolaboratory.
Coldiretti and other agriculture lobbies garnered half a million signatures calling for protecting “natural food vs synthetic food.”
“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,” she told a “flash mob” organized by Coldiretti outside her office in Rome.
The proposed bill comes on the heels of various government decrees banning the use of flour derived from insects in pizza or pasta.
Ministers cited Italy’s prized Mediterranean diet as motivation to ban the globalist insect diet and lab-grown meats.
Mr. Lollobrigida 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 proposals seek to ban synthetic foods produced from animal cells and apply to lab-produced fish and synthetic milk.
However, some commentators pointed out that Italy could not oppose the sale of synthetic meat produced within the EU when it gains approval in the European state due to the free movement of goods and services.
European countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, and Spain, have announced investments in the research and development of synthetic meat.
“Italy is essentially a complete outlier here,” said Alice Ravenscroft, the head of policy at the Good Food Institute Europe noted. “What we’re seeing across the rest of Europe is that other governments are eager to unlock some of the benefits of cultivated meat and are therefore being supportive.”
**Source: Italy Deals Massive Blow to Bill Gates as It Moves to Ban Lab-Grown Meats