The Italian animal husbandry supply chain versus laboratory meat
From showcase of Italian food to event to say no to synthetic foods. To the TuttoFood 2023 in Milan the protest of Italian producers against meat, cheese and fish made in the laboratory takes shape. After insectmeals, companies in the supply chain fear the green light from Brussels for the marketing of synthetic meats in the Old Continent. An eventuality considered a real disaster especially for the introduction on the market of food products that have not been adequately tested, but also for the damages they would cause to Italian companies in the sector. The question is not just given that the Italian livestock supply chain is valid about 55 billion euros.
Hence the position taken by Italian producers
“An exceptional unitary response is arriving from the entire Italian livestock supply chain, as exceptional and never experienced before is the risk to which we are all exposed” he declared Luigi Scordamagliamanaging director of Italy supply chainduring the event organized by Filiera Italia and Coldiretti at TuttoFood on the occasion of the launch of first Italian supply chain alliance against synthetic food. “The organizations gathered here represent a supply chain that is worth around 55 billion euros in Italy with a total of around 550,000 employees. This is what synthetic meat, milk and fish would put at risk,” he specifies.
“All together here to say no. No to synthetic foods that they would replace globally 1.3 billion farmers who live off animal husbandry, with very few multinationals and would affect the exports of our excellent products which are growing at double-digit rates today” he added. “No to those who think of mystifying the truths about environmental impacts on consumer safety. No to those who want to concentrate the future of global food in the hands of a few multinationals, untying it from the earth. And above all together for a yes to true independent scientific research at the highest levels that will allow us to stop this madness ”she concluded.
A Made in Italy food chain that is going strong
In fact, while in Brussels we think of synthetic meats, Italian productions conquer foreign markets with two-digit numbers. Food exports to France have grown the most, with + 24%, ahead of Germany (+19%) which, at an absolute level with 9.4 billion. remains the first export market for Italy and the United States (+15%).
But requests in 2023 for the go-ahead for lab-produced meat as novel food puts the sector’s results at risk. For Coldiretti, the arrival of synthetic meat on the tables is “a lethal threat to Italian agriculture, consumer health and the planet’s biodiversity“. Against this hypothesis, the association has collected over half a million signatures which led the Meloni government to present a draft law that prohibits the production, use and marketing of synthetic food in Italy.
In the background there is also the theme of the traffic light label
The matter will be discussed next autumn. The front of the Northern countries is in favor of the so-called Nutriscore system. But according to Coldiretti, “it is a misleading, discriminatory and incomplete labeling system which paradoxically ends up excluding healthy and natural foods from the diet. Foods that have been present on tables for centuries to favor synthetic products whose recipe is not even known in some cases”.
In particular, “traffic light labeling alarm systems focus exclusively on a very limited number of nutrients (e.g. sugar, fat and salt) and on energy intake regardless of portionsparadoxically excluding from the diet as much as 85% in value of Made in Italy with denomination of origin” as noted by the producers’ association.
The Italian government is ready to do battle in defense of Made in Italy
The Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, he recalled how the ministry of health has provided precise indications on products made in the laboratory. “He told us that synthetic food is not safe, on the contrary, the potential for it to be harmful exists. And this is why we have a duty to fight in Europe too. We started in Italy, but we will fight in Europe to make sure it doesn’t pass” she explained during the inauguration of TuttoFood.
“In Brussels I made a request not to go through the procedures of Novel Food linked to synthetic productions, but to go through the verification process attributed to drugs, which is much longer and more in-depth, but which guarantees respect for an epochal choice of this nature,” he added. There are “two approaches to food security: some say that we could find a good solution to guarantee food for everyone regardless of its quality, while we are convinced that there may be another way: food for everyone, keeping quality at the centre. We are not giving up on the idea that meat is produced in bioreactors instead of in our stables”, concluded Lollobrigida. But it is clear that it will not be an easy battle because around the corner there is the opportunity for a thriving business.