Italy has banned lab-made meats to protect its farming industry and citizen health, and Florida may follow.Italian Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida boasted of her government's groundbreaking legislation in a Facebook post.“In defense of health, of the Italian production system, of thousands of jobs, of our culture and tradition, with the law approved today, Italy is the first nation in the world to be safe from the social and economic risks of synthetic food," she wrote.The bill passed the Senate 159–53 last month, backed by Italian agricultural groups eager to protect their $10.1 billion meat-processing industry.On Nov. 13, Florida state Rep. Tyler Sirois filed HB 435 to prohibit the "manufacturing, sale, holding, or distribution of cultivated meat" in the state."Farming and cattle are incredibly important industries to Florida," the Republican told Politico. "So I think this is a very relevant discussion for our state to have."Should the bill become law, restaurants and stores in violation could be fined up to $5,000, and manufacturers, processors, packers, or distributors who misrepresent or mislabel the food could be fined $10,000 per violation. The measure moved to the Agriculture, Conservation, and Resiliency Subcommittee on Nov. 22.In 2018, a Missouri law prohibited plant-based and lab-grown food from being labeled as “meat.” The text for SB627 says,"This act also prohibits misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry.”The pseudo-meat is made through a five-step process where animal stem cells are replicated and grown in a series of bioreactors, then blended with additives to create a more realistic texture. The cells are then drained in a centrifuge, formed, and packaged for distribution.On June 21, the U.S. Department of Agriculture granted its first-ever approvals for cell-cultured meat to the companies Good Meat and Upside Food. Singapore is the only other country to approve cultivated meat for humans.Bill Gates has been a major investor in Upside Foods since its launch in 2017. The company says on its website it takes three weeks to produce its chicken filet of "more than 99 percent chicken cells.""Not to get bogged down in semantics, but we can’t overstate this: We’re making meat!" the company states.The FDA approved Upside Foods to make products in November 2022, based on an assessment Upside made of its own processes and risk management.Good Meat chicken was approved for sale in Singapore in 2020 and the U.S. in 2023. It is also working on beef made from Japanese and California cattle. Major investors include UBS O'Connor, Graphene Ventures, and Singapore-based K3 Ventures.Of 16 cultivated meat companies, five are in the United States, three in Israel, two in the Netherlands, two in Singapore, and one each in the UK, Switzerland, India, and China. Research and Markets predicts worldwide sales will approach $2 billion by 2025, led by nugget sales. Then, burger patties will have the largest compound growth for the following 10 years.A 2021 report published by Springer Nature and written by Nicolas Treich, said lab meat could save animals and the planet."[M]ore than 70 billion of terrestrial farm animals are raised and killed for food every year," wrote the associate researcher at France's National Institute for Agriculture, Nutrition, and the Environment.Domestic animals are "usually slaughtered very young,” he wrote, while pigs "are confined for weeks in small crates, prohibiting basic movements including walking and turning around."Also, domestic animals contribute “significantly to climate change," take "a great deal of water and land," and lead to "deforestation, loss of biodiversity and epidemics.” In addition, “animal food production is also an incubator for antimicrobial resistance," as livestock receives more than 70% of all antibiotic doses.Treich concluded lab-grown meat was “the most serious…alternative to be able to significantly reduce the deleterious impacts of meat production and consumption.”However, a study released Apr. 21 by the University of California–Davis, and UC–Holtville, said the opposite. Researchers found cultured meat was more “resource intensive when examined from the cradle to production gate" and emitted much more carbon dioxide per kilogram."Our model generally contradicts these previous studies by suggesting that the environmental impact of cultured meat is likely to be higher than conventional beef systems, as opposed to more environmentally friendly," the authors wrote."This is an important conclusion given that investment dollars have specifically been allocated to this sector with the thesis that this product will be more environmentally friendly than beef."Dr. Paul Saladino, who advocates a meat-based diet, called lab-grown meat "a travesty waiting to happen” and “not real meat," in a Sept. 14 video on X."It's made in cell culture in a lab. It's almost certainly going to cause health issues for humans—autoimmune issues, damage to the gut, all sorts of problems can arise from meat grown in a petri dish."
Italy has banned lab-made meats to protect its farming industry and citizen health, and Florida may follow.Italian Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida boasted of her government's groundbreaking legislation in a Facebook post.“In defense of health, of the Italian production system, of thousands of jobs, of our culture and tradition, with the law approved today, Italy is the first nation in the world to be safe from the social and economic risks of synthetic food," she wrote.The bill passed the Senate 159–53 last month, backed by Italian agricultural groups eager to protect their $10.1 billion meat-processing industry.On Nov. 13, Florida state Rep. Tyler Sirois filed HB 435 to prohibit the "manufacturing, sale, holding, or distribution of cultivated meat" in the state."Farming and cattle are incredibly important industries to Florida," the Republican told Politico. "So I think this is a very relevant discussion for our state to have."Should the bill become law, restaurants and stores in violation could be fined up to $5,000, and manufacturers, processors, packers, or distributors who misrepresent or mislabel the food could be fined $10,000 per violation. The measure moved to the Agriculture, Conservation, and Resiliency Subcommittee on Nov. 22.In 2018, a Missouri law prohibited plant-based and lab-grown food from being labeled as “meat.” The text for SB627 says,"This act also prohibits misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry.”The pseudo-meat is made through a five-step process where animal stem cells are replicated and grown in a series of bioreactors, then blended with additives to create a more realistic texture. The cells are then drained in a centrifuge, formed, and packaged for distribution.On June 21, the U.S. Department of Agriculture granted its first-ever approvals for cell-cultured meat to the companies Good Meat and Upside Food. Singapore is the only other country to approve cultivated meat for humans.Bill Gates has been a major investor in Upside Foods since its launch in 2017. The company says on its website it takes three weeks to produce its chicken filet of "more than 99 percent chicken cells.""Not to get bogged down in semantics, but we can’t overstate this: We’re making meat!" the company states.The FDA approved Upside Foods to make products in November 2022, based on an assessment Upside made of its own processes and risk management.Good Meat chicken was approved for sale in Singapore in 2020 and the U.S. in 2023. It is also working on beef made from Japanese and California cattle. Major investors include UBS O'Connor, Graphene Ventures, and Singapore-based K3 Ventures.Of 16 cultivated meat companies, five are in the United States, three in Israel, two in the Netherlands, two in Singapore, and one each in the UK, Switzerland, India, and China. Research and Markets predicts worldwide sales will approach $2 billion by 2025, led by nugget sales. Then, burger patties will have the largest compound growth for the following 10 years.A 2021 report published by Springer Nature and written by Nicolas Treich, said lab meat could save animals and the planet."[M]ore than 70 billion of terrestrial farm animals are raised and killed for food every year," wrote the associate researcher at France's National Institute for Agriculture, Nutrition, and the Environment.Domestic animals are "usually slaughtered very young,” he wrote, while pigs "are confined for weeks in small crates, prohibiting basic movements including walking and turning around."Also, domestic animals contribute “significantly to climate change," take "a great deal of water and land," and lead to "deforestation, loss of biodiversity and epidemics.” In addition, “animal food production is also an incubator for antimicrobial resistance," as livestock receives more than 70% of all antibiotic doses.Treich concluded lab-grown meat was “the most serious…alternative to be able to significantly reduce the deleterious impacts of meat production and consumption.”However, a study released Apr. 21 by the University of California–Davis, and UC–Holtville, said the opposite. Researchers found cultured meat was more “resource intensive when examined from the cradle to production gate" and emitted much more carbon dioxide per kilogram."Our model generally contradicts these previous studies by suggesting that the environmental impact of cultured meat is likely to be higher than conventional beef systems, as opposed to more environmentally friendly," the authors wrote."This is an important conclusion given that investment dollars have specifically been allocated to this sector with the thesis that this product will be more environmentally friendly than beef."Dr. Paul Saladino, who advocates a meat-based diet, called lab-grown meat "a travesty waiting to happen” and “not real meat," in a Sept. 14 video on X."It's made in cell culture in a lab. It's almost certainly going to cause health issues for humans—autoimmune issues, damage to the gut, all sorts of problems can arise from meat grown in a petri dish."
