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Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

#101

Post by jacquesm »

kmeisthax wrote: post #86
deergomoo wrote: post #13

This seems no different than the ridiculous laws proposed in some US states recently that would ban EV sales to protect the oil and gas industries. I’m sorry that people could one day lose jobs over this, but if lab-grown meat is proven to be a safe and cost/energy/carbon efficient alternative to raising and killing animals, then it would be insane to not pursue that.

Not necessarily. The EV ban bills proposed in those US states are purely there just to irritate liberals. The EU is extremely skeptic of any genetically-modified food, for a whole load of various reasons, and banning lab-grown meat is entirely in line with that. If you can't tolerate one extra disease-resistance gene in your food, you're not going to be happy with lab-grown meat either. Furthermore, the EU has a very…

Which is fine. The canonical example: Parma ham has to be from Parma, and that makes good sense to me.

It gets more muddy with cheese, lots of cheese named 'Gouda' isn't Gouda, traditionally Gouda (and Alkmaar) were the big cheese trading markets and the stamp 'Gouda' originally meant traded in Gouda, not produced in Gouda (which doesn't really make Cheese). But Edammer cheese really is made in Edam (or Volendam!). And 'Old Amsterdam' is just a tradename for factory produced Gouda like cheese which has nothing whatsoever to do with Amsterdam and isn't really all that old (artificial high speed ripening). Tourists love it though and pay ridiculous amounts of money for it and now you can get it in regular stores as well.

So food named after towns isn't always historically - or even at all - connected to the town. But in cases where that is so it makes good sense to respect that history.

Re: Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

#102

Post by lm28469 »

withinboredom wrote: post #87
lm28469 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every industry is doomed when developing countries can do the same for half the price... Which is exactly why Europe delocalised a lot of industries in the first place and is now mostly stuck with services, tourism and tech. And it's exactly what we should stop doing if we want to have anything of value left I know it's hard to believe for a lot of people on HN but not every country wants to become yet another soulle…

I have nothing but farm for hours just 10 minutes from house in the EU. There's a lot more than "services, tourism, and tech."

Of course, but with automation and modern mass farming techniques it represents 1% of the jobs it used to, the rest of the population has been pushed out in services &co

If the future Google of lab grown meats comes in the game you'll get even more centralisation, less small/medium exploitations, and most likely 0 local production given the barrier to entry

Re: Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

#103

Post by unixgoddess »

withinboredom wrote: post #87
lm28469 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every industry is doomed when developing countries can do the same for half the price... Which is exactly why Europe delocalised a lot of industries in the first place and is now mostly stuck with services, tourism and tech. And it's exactly what we should stop doing if we want to have anything of value left I know it's hard to believe for a lot of people on HN but not every country wants to become yet another soulle…

I have nothing but farm for hours just 10 minutes from house in the EU. There's a lot more than "services, tourism, and tech."

are you in eastern europe? for most western europe, europe means western europe unfortunately

Re: Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

#104

Post by Retric »

_0w8t wrote: post #88
pella wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but if lab-grown meat is proven to be a safe We need to fully understand its safety, nutritional content, and long-term health effects. Our understanding of the full biochemical spectrum of our diets is still limited. Therefore, it's important to ensure that lab-grown meat adequately replicates the complex array of nutrients and other beneficial compounds found in conventionally produced meat. Long-term effects: Si…

By the same reasoning factory farms that feed cows with grain, not grass, should be banned, as it very significantly alter meat nutrition.

Grains are grasses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaceae

The difference is we are feeding them grass seeds vs grass leaves.

Re: Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

#105

Post by fineIllregister »

nemo44x wrote: post #64
AlecSchueler wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain your reasoning? The unnatural food product stickers sounds like a health warning but for what? I already buy stuff like oat milk and it never bothered me that it's not actually milk. Same with plant based butters etc

Well, it’s unnatural to begin with. Other good movements like “organic” worked hard for that label and the producers of those products work hard. I don’t believe oat milk should be allowed to use the word “milk” and if it wants to then should be prefaced with words describing it as “imitation milk” or similar.

> unnatural

You keep using that word, but you haven't explained what makes it unnatural. There are people who eat insects right now, and I'm willing to bet people have been eating insects as long as there have been people. It seems more "natural" to me than drinking another aninals lactations. I don't want to eat insects, but you've offered no explanation why it is insufficient to list the ingredients (which is already required, making it different from your "organic" example).

Also, "milk" has referred to any thick, white substance for centuries now. Consider "milk of magnesia". It's the cow dairy industry that is trying to appropriate the word.

Re: Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

#106

Post by hackernewds »

Fragoel2 wrote: post #16

As an Italian, I can tell you this is just a move to grab some votes from their supporters. Lab meat is nowhere close to mass production so there is no real impact of this ban right now. When (and if) lab-grown meat becomes commonplace and, hence, cheaper than regular meat then the ban will be reverted as it would have negative implications on the country economy.

Seems like conjecture on multiple different fronts

Re: Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

#107

Post by throwaway22032 »

I have no idea why people on here are so against this.

It just reinforces the fact that we're so different. Politically divided.

I just want meat. Actual meat from normal animals. I have no idea why this is controversial. I don't get any of it. A solution in search of a problem.

Re: Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

#108

Post by jacquesm »

lm28469 wrote: post #68
9dev wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your economy is entirely dependent on a doomed industry, maybe, instead of artificially keeping it alive, focus on modernising that economy instead?

Every industry is doomed when developing countries can do the same for half the price... Which is exactly why Europe delocalised a lot of industries in the first place and is now mostly stuck with services, tourism and tech. And it's exactly what we should stop doing if we want to have anything of value left I know it's hard to believe for a lot of people on HN but not every country wants to become yet another soulle…

> now mostly stuck with services, tourism and tech

> hard to believe for a lot of people on HN

You generalize a lot. The EU does far more than services, tourism and tech and you can't really know what a lot of people on HN find hard to believe, especially if you then throw up a strawman about their professed beliefs.

Re: Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

#109

Post by fnmron »

9dev wrote: post #89
fnmron wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We kill millions of babys for joy or taste A bull per month in a cultural ceremony feels like the least of the problems

Just because one thing is more bad doesn’t make the other good. We can both stop killing bulls for fun and take care of other issues too.

There's many adjacent practices to bull fighting that are legal.

So for consistency sake we will need to look into farming, we will need to look into carnivorous animals, we will need to look into supplying air conditioning to animals in a hot day for the sake of their welfare

Re: Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage

#110

Post by pella »

_0w8t wrote: post #88
pella wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but if lab-grown meat is proven to be a safe We need to fully understand its safety, nutritional content, and long-term health effects. Our understanding of the full biochemical spectrum of our diets is still limited. Therefore, it's important to ensure that lab-grown meat adequately replicates the complex array of nutrients and other beneficial compounds found in conventionally produced meat. Long-term effects: Si…

By the same reasoning factory farms that feed cows with grain, not grass, should be banned, as it very significantly alter meat nutrition.

Many individuals remain skeptical about the concept of evolutionary nutritional adaptation, arguing that our bodies have not adequately adapted to a variety of modern foods and additives. Indeed, there is mounting evidence suggesting that ultra-processed foods can have negative impacts on our health.

In the ongoing debate surrounding breast milk and baby formula, the majority continues to favor breast milk as the optimal choice for infant nutrition.

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