Italy has passed a bold new law and become the first country to ban the production, distribution, and import of lab-grown meat.

The Italian parliament passed the law on November 16.

“We are the first nation to ban it, with all due respect to the multinationals who hope to make monstrous profits by putting citizens’ jobs and health at risk,” said Italy’s Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida. 

Lollobrigida further said the move was done to protect “our culture and tradition.”

“Italy is the first nation in the world to be safe from the social and economic risks of synthetic food,” he stated on Facebook. 

Italy’s new law also bans falsely labeling plant-based meat substitutes as real meat. 

Furthermore, violating the new law could result in fines between $15,000 – $90,000 (CDN). 

US approved lab-grown meat in June

This comes five months after the United States Department of Agriculture approved the sale of lab-grown meat from two companies, Good Meat and UPSIDE Foods, the latter of which is backed by Bill Gates.

However, Canada has not cleared the production or sale of lab-grown meat to date.

COP28 to call for humans to eat less meat

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) kicks off Nov. 30, where delegates, including for some reason, Bill Gates, are reportedly set to push a meat-minimizing agenda. 

“I’m excited to get to COP, share my optimism about the future, and talk about how we can both avoid a climate disaster and improve life for people today and in the generations to come,” Gates said in his blog.

Last year, Gates said that Westerners should adjust their palates and get used to the idea of eating fake meat.

“I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time. Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand,” he said.