“Before any authorization, we ask the Commission to launch an authentic and comprehensive public consultation on cell-based products” that “can never be called meat” and that raise “ethical, economic, social and environmental issues, as well as nutrition and health security.” ”. This is what we read in the document from the Austrian, French and Italian delegations, but also supported by the Czech, Cypriot, Greek, Hungarian, Luxembourg, Lithuanian, Maltese, Romanian and Slovak delegations. which will be presented to the European Council “Agriculture and Fisheries” on January 23, 2024, as reported by Coldiretti.
“The alliance born in Europe accepts the doubts raised for the first time by Coldiretti and confirms the pioneering role of Italy, which is a world leader in food quality and safety, in policies to protect the health of citizens” commented the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini in expressing his appreciation for the leading role at community level of the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida. The position taken by a growing number of countries is a response – Prandini specifies – to the need to carry out unequivocal analyzes of the impact of public investigation and to avoid turning citizens into human guinea pigs, as we were the first to ask for. The growing distrust confirms, in fact, the need to respect the precautionary principle in the face of a new technology with many unknowns that runs the risk of changing people’s lives and the environment that surrounds us” continues Prandini, underlining that “precisely because of this This is why the challenge that Coldiretti poses to the European institutions is that laboratory products in authorization processes are not equated with food, but with pharmaceutical products”.
In the document already supported by 12 countries of the Union – highlights Coldiretti – the Commission is invited to present a global impact assessment on artificial foods before any authorization for sale and consumption to address ethical, economic, social and environmental issues, as well as issues related to nutrition and health security. These new practices – it is specified – include the production of food using stem cell technology with the need to avoid risks to the health of consumers. At an ethical and health level, the document – continues Coldiretti – highlights that it is necessary to take into account the fact that the EU has already decided to ban food produced from cloned animals and meat treated with hormones” used instead of bioreactors for food artificial while at an economic level, “the Commission and all States are urged to adopt preventive measures against food production monopolies” favored by high fixed costs and economies of scale that benefit some large-scale producers with the risk of dependencies throughout the food chain.
Furthermore, according to the document, initial studies also show – Coldiretti specifies – a weak environmental sustainability with the cell-based food production process that highlights a high energy intensity, generating up to 25 times more CO2 equivalent per kilogram more than than genuine meat. The signatories are also concerned about the need to maintain pastures even in less favored and mountainous areas, which provide invaluable environmental services such as carbon storage and to avoid – concludes Coldiretti – the increase in inequalities with regard to the economic accessibility of products of genuine meat to consumers.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
