On July 19, 2023, the Senate of the Republic approved the bill banning cellular agriculture and meat sounding in Italy, i.e., the use of names referring to meats on labels and advertisements of plant-based or otherwise different foods. (1)
93 votes in favor (Fratelli d’Italia, League, Forza Italia, Italia Viva), 32 abstentions (Democratic Party, Action) and only 28 against (Greens, Italian Left, 5 Star Movement and some members of the Mixed Group) express the subservience of politics to Coldiretti. #CleanSpades.
1) Coldiretti and ‘food sovereignty’ tailored to its own interests
Agribusiness policy in Italy is governed exclusively by the head of Coldiretti’s chiefs, Vincenzo Gesmundo, regardless of the people appointed from time to time to head ministries and parliamentary commissions. As this writer has amply demonstrated-at least since 2004 (2)-and the votes on the current bill (ordered precisely by Coldiretti. See notes 3,4) demonstrate.
Moreover, Coldiretti’s ideology is nonpartisan because it follows the exclusive interest of accumulating money and power for itself. This explains both Palazzo Rospigliosi’s acrimony toward cellular agriculture-which has not yet expressed business opportunities for Coldiretti’s magic circle-and its heartfelt support of new GMOs (NGTs, New Genomic Techniques) and agrochemicals (5,6).
2) Cellular agriculture, the partial ban in Italy
The present bill-unconstitutional and illegitimate, as noted (7)-bans the production and placing on the market of both food and feed ‘consisting of, isolated from, or produced from cell cultures or tissues derived from vertebrate animals‘ (LD, Article 2). In practice, cellular agriculture and the sale of related products would thus be limited in Italy to tissue reproductions of certain fish species (e.g., jellyfish, mollusks) and insects.
The sum total ignorance of the authors of this wacky legislation is then expressed in the invocation of the precautionary principle as evoked in the General Food Law. Where precisely the European norm referred to makes it clear how the precautionary principle can be invoked by authorities in charge of food risk management – certainly not by legislators – to address ‘specific circumstances‘ with ‘provisional measures‘ (EC Reg. 178/02, Article 7).
3) Meat sounding, the ban
Only processed foods-produced and marketed in Italy-that contain ‘exclusively plant proteins‘ would then be subject to the ban on reporting to:
‘(a) legal, customary and descriptive names referring to meat, a meat production or products made predominantly from meat,
(b) references to animal species or groups of animal species or an animal morphology or animal anatomy,
(c) terminologies specific to the butcher’s shop, delicatessen or fishmonger’s shop,
(d) names of foodstuffs of animal origin representative of commercial uses‘ (LD, Article 3. Prohibition of meat name for processed products containing plant protein).
3.1) Reserved designations
The Italian legislature It would then delegate the MASAF (Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry) to publish a decree, within the sixty days from the effective date of this law, where it would report ‘A list of food sales names that, if traced back to plant products, may mislead the consuming citizen as to the composition of the food‘ (qtdl, Article 3.5).
The Coldiretti ras and his bevy of followers, at the height of foodporn delirium, would therefore like to draft a new ‘legal vocabulary’ of Italian foods. Arrogating to herself the arbitrariness of deciding which names might tempt veg consumers whom Minister Lollobrigida is instead tasked with re-educating to a healthy ‘bread and salami’ Italic culture. Therefore, a list of national ‘legal designations’ reserved for foods of animal origin should be constructed. (8)
4) Rampant checks and exemplary penalties.
Controls and penalties established in this foodporn law are completely disproportionate to any measures taken to date to counter far more serious phenomena:
– competence for inspections is extended to ASL, NAS, RAC, Carabinieri Forestali, ICQRF, Guardia di Finanza, and Port Authorities (Bill, Article 4),
– penalties range from €10,000 to €60,000 or ’10 percent of the annual turnover‘ for the previous fiscal year when it exceeds €60,000, subject to a limit of €150,000 (Bill, Article 5).
5) Interim Conclusions
The very loyal MEP Paolo De Castro, president of Coldiretti’s Filiera Italia foundation, has already suffered a memorable defeat, in Strasbourg, precisely on meat sounding. (9)
Italian politicians persist in following the orders of the boss of bosses by trampling on the basic rights of citizens and businesses, as well as the rules of the ‘Europe condominium,’ knowing the generosity of the Coldiretti system towards its ‘friends. (10) But the cost of delusional initiatives such as the one under consideration is extremely high and falls on the entire community.
#CleanSpades
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Senate of the Republic. Stenographic record of the courtroom session no. 089 of 19.7.23. See oral report on bill 651. Provisions on prohibiting the production and placing on the market of synthetic food and feed. Approved, with amendments, with the following title: Provisions on the prohibition of production and placing on the market of food and feed consisting of, isolated from, or produced from cell cultures or tissues derived from vertebrate animals as well as the prohibition of the name meat for processed products containing plant protein https://tinyurl.com/4devpeze
(2) The very writer got the European Commission to put the Italian government, then led by Silvio Berlusconi, on notice with a warning to stop the application of Law 204/2004 (not notified to Brussels, as it should have been), which at the behest of Coldiretti prescribed the mandatory indication of the origin of raw materials of all ingredients on the labels of all food products. That law, and the decree law that preceded it, were the first signs of Coldiretti’s domination of agribusiness policy in Italy
(3) Synthetic meat: good Senate stop for 3 out of 4 Italians. The Coldiretti Point. https://tinyurl.com/5eckewdz 19.7.23
(4) Franco La Cecia. Coldiretti’s greenwashing at arm’s length with the Italian right. https://www.micromega.net/il-greenwashing-della-coldiretti-a-braccetto-con-la-destra-italiana/amp/ Micromega. June 2023
(5) See paragraph 1 in the previous article ‘Coldiretti conquering the organic sector. #CleanSpades’
(6) Dario Dongo. Food sovereignty in Italy, ABC. Reflections and proposals to the new minister. FT (Food Times). 28.10.22
(7) Dario Dongo. Italy, cellular agriculture banned by law? Unconstitutional bill. FT (Food Times). 2.4.23
(8) Dario Dongo. Food name. FT (Food Times). 21.8.17
(9) Dario Dongo. ‘Vegan meat’, meat sounding. Big show at the European Parliament. FT (Food Times). 23.10.20
(10) Dario Dongo. Public administration, loyalty to the state or to Coldiretti? #CleanSpades. FT (Food Times). 27.6.21
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
