Italy became the first country to prohibit lab-grown food, including meat.
“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,” Italy’s Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida said in a Facebook post.
Ettore Prandini, the President of Coldiretti, a farmers’ movement, said, “The ban on the production, distribution and import of synthetic food in Italy is finally law.”
He added, “We are proud to be the first country that, despite being in favor of research, preventively blocks, as a precaution, the sale of food produced in laboratories whose effects it could have on the health of consumer citizens are currently unknown. A result that is also part of the defense of the work of our farmers and our businesses, and obviously of traditional food and our Made in Italy.”
The bill passed 159 to 53.
Only two countries have approved lab-grown meat, the United States and Singapore.
