On this day in vegan history · December 1, 2023
Italy Bans a Meat That Wasn't for Sale Yet
Before a single lab-grown cutlet reached an Italian plate, parliament made selling one a crime, and did it so fast that Brussels never got the courtesy of a heads-up.
The facts
- Passed
- Law 172 of December 1, 2023, published in the Official Gazette the same day; in force from December 16, 2023
- Banned
- Production, sale, and import of foods or feeds made from cell cultures or tissues from vertebrate animals
- Penalty
- Fines of 10,000 to 60,000 euros per violation, or 10% of annual turnover if that's higher
- EU snag
- Italy passed the law before the required three-month EU notification 'standstill' period had run its course
On December 1, 2023, Italy published Law 172 in its Official Gazette, making it the first country in the world to ban the production, sale, and import of cultivated meat and cell-based animal feed. The same law barred plant-based products from using meaty words like "steak" or "salame." Agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida and the farmers' group Coldiretti had pushed hard for it, framing lab-grown protein as a threat to Italian tradition and to the country's meat and dairy supply chains. The law took effect on December 16, but it had jumped ahead of a European Union review period Italy was supposed to sit out first, a shortcut that would leave its enforceability in doubt for years afterward.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
-
We are the first nation to ban it, to the chagrin of multinational companies that hoped to make monstrous profits, jeopardizing the jobs and health of citizens
Francesco Lollobrigida, Italy's minister for food sovereignty and agriculture, in a Facebook statement, November 2023
Source: Fortune -
We are proud to be the first country that, despite being in favor of research, preemptively blocks the sale of lab-produced food, the effects of which are currently unknown on the health of consumer citizens
Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti, in a Facebook statement, November 2023
Source: Fortune
Why it still matters
Italy showed that the fight over cultivated meat would be fought in parliaments as much as in bioreactors, banning a product before it was ever legally sold there. The law's shaky footing under EU rules became the opening argument in a fight over whether any single country can outlaw a food the rest of the bloc hasn't ruled on yet.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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