Lab Meat Again???

Say no to drugs! Erm, not drugs, say no to lab created meats and feeds. Now that's a slogan we might be hearing more of in the coming future, especially as countries begin to review the use cases, ethics, social impacts, and economic impacts of approving lab grown meat and animal feeds.

In some recent bills, the Italian government has approved a bill that states that any retailer or producer that chooses to provide lab cultivated meat can be fined up to 60,000 euros. Signed at the end of March of this year, the intent of the bill is to preserve Italian food culture. Of course, there are those who are against it, claiming that the nationalist Italian government should reconsider the bill because of the benefits of lab created meat.

Unsurprisingly, the primary groups against the bill are self-proclaimed environmental groups and animal rights activists. The groups are claiming that the ban is "anti-scientific advancement" and that the environmental impacts of banning lab created meat could be major.

In a previous article we covered potential impacts of lab cultivated meat and noted that there would still be environmental impact, it just would not be the same as that of a farm. Depending on how the meat is processed and what large-scale production could require, the environmental impact of cultivated meat could be greater than that of natural meat, much like the environmental impact of electric cars vs combustion engines- electric cars may not need the use of petrol, but electricity doesn't "fall from the sky" and the batteries of the electric cars are not exactly biodegradable. Lab cultivated meat is not the only initiative that the Italian president is trying to block, in fact, Meloni has been pushing decrees to force information on labels of products containing or derived from insects. In case you missed it, cricket-based flour recently became a thing and while it's kind of gross, is it a decent substitute for flour. The point Meloni is trying to make is that informed consent of use for the people matters when it comes to food products.

Arbitrage is your source for business, finance, and tech info. Don’t miss the podcast at https://www.arbitragetrade.com/podcasts