On 19 July 2023, the discussion and subsequent vote on Draft Law 651 was held in the Senate, in Europe initially entitled "Provisions on the prohibition of the production and placing on the market of synthetic food and feed" and then amended to "Provisions on the prohibition of the production and placing on the market of food and feed consisting of, isolated from or produced from cell or tissue cultures deriving from vertebrate animals as well as prohibition of the denomination of meat for processed products containing vegetable proteins".
The vote for DDL 651, and therefore the bans on the marketing and production of meat in vitro, passed thanks to the 93 votes in favor of the government majority with the support of Italia Viva. Only 28 were against, represented by Verdi, the Italian Left, Movimento 5 Stelle and some members of the Mixed Group. Abstentions from the Democratic Party and Action, for a total of 32 non-votes.
In the face of the few interventions in favor of these new food solutions, others of different tenor proposed by the exponents of the Majority followed. Some positions deserve to be commented, starting with the denialist ones on the anthropic contribution to climate change.
Various repropositions concerning "synthetic meats" have also been accounted for , which are not "synthetic", creating a non-existent contrast between the naturalness of conventional meats and the supposed artificiality of cultivated cells, also hypothesized as possible threats to human health even without evidence in this sense.
During the session in the Senate, there was no shortage of protectionist-nationalistic positions in favor of Italian agricultural and gastronomic traditions, apparently threatened by the participants in the summits that are periodically held in Davos, Switzerland, by multinationals, by the conspiracy of social networks, and by no better spell out “scientist lobbies”.
It should be noted that the alignments against the Ddl 651 and therefore in favor of the scientific arguments brought in support of the freedom of trade and the new opportunities for economic development are the same ones that in the past had supported the alarmism on crop protection products, glyphosate in primis, and on biotechnology. Some of them, various exponents of the M5S, even opposed the eradication of olive trees in Puglia which were essential to combat the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium, nor should we forget the positions against strategic infrastructures for the country such as Tav, Tap, regasification plants and extraction platforms in the Adriatic as well as than against the use of nuclear energy.
It must therefore be hypothesized that the real motivations of the recent pro-science positions, flaunted against the bill 651, must be traced back only to ideologies diametrically opposed to those of the Majority as well as to an eco-animalism that sees cultivated meat as a possible alternative to intensive farming .
In the debate we have therefore witnessed a race within a race, fueled by those who oppose animal husbandry and those who instead defend it staunchly.
In between, the factual truth, with farms now controlled in compliance with regulations, animal welfare and the administration of drugs and antibiotics, but still economic activities.
What remains at the end of the debate, therefore, is a vote that rewarded an inconsistent and inapplicable "precautionary principle ", riding on the classic theme of the defense of national borders.
Net of the declarations on the climate, the environment and synthetic food , the Senators of the Republic have once again committed a serious crime, namely that of blocking the road to progress and national economic development.
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It is worth pointing out that government actions have been able to count on a broad and transversal consensus from the various local administrations, those who have embraced the Coldiretti initiative which aims to have cultivated meat banned in Italy.
In fact, in various speeches the Senate was reminded how bill 651 was generated by requests coming from the grassroots, i.e. from political peripheries that would have obtained the consent of the citizens.
However, it should be remembered that when Europe endorses in vitro meat, because it is certain that it will endorse it, the bill 651 will fall in its parts relating to trade in the name of the free movement of people and goods. However, the prohibition of production will remain, the same misalignment that is suffered today in the field of GMOs, which can be imported, eaten and administered to farm animals, but cannot be cultivated on national soil , with serious losses in productivity and profitability for Italian farmers.
