Coldiretti launches against the meat produced in the laboratory which has been talked about so much in recent times. In a dossier presented at the International Agriculture and Food Forum at Villa Miani in Rome, he launches his j'accuse against what is called, with an effective term, Frankestein Meat, denouncing the five unspoken truths that deny the thesis of its supporters.
To the "skillful marketing strategy" that presented synthetic meat as a solution to sustainably produce food in abundance and feed a growing population, "hiding the colossal commercial and speculative interests associated with it", Coldiretrti opposes its truths: It does not save animals because it is made using the fetuses of cows, it does not save the environment because it consumes more water and energy than many traditional farms, it does not help health because there is no guarantee that the chemicals used are safe for food consumption , is not accessible to everyone since a bioreactor is needed to make it and it is not even meat but a synthetic and engineered product.
The first lie is related - explains Coldiretti - to the alleged wholesomeness of test-tube meat. The high cell proliferation rate can induce genetic instability of cells supporting the potential proliferation of sporadic cancer cells; furthermore, we do not have assurance so far that all chemicals needed for cell culture are safe in the context of food consumption. To this must be added the risks of nutritional deficiency associated with the lack of consumption of animal proteins, well documented in human history by a large medical literature, which in particular signals serious and sometimes irreversible pathological symptoms for children.
But Frankenstein meat doesn't even save the environment – continues Coldiretti – nor does it reduce the impact on climate change. According to a recent study conducted by a group of scientists from the Oxford Martin School, the environmental impacts of synthetic steak, which is associated with intense energy consumption, could lead to greater global warming in the long term. In addition to this, the synthetic meat production process requires water consumption that is far higher than that of many farms, also producing enormous quantities of chemical and organic molecules whose residues are highly polluting for water resources according to Inra French Institute for Agricultural Research.
Another lie is that artificial meat eliminates animal suffering. The reality is quite different - Coldiretti reveals - since to make it you need fetal bovine serum for food growth in the laboratory, a culture based on calf stem cells. After a mother cow has been slaughtered and quartered, her uterus, which contains the fetus, is removed, choosing only those over three months old, otherwise the heart is too small to puncture, and no no anesthesia. Will we have in the future only farms to use fetuses?
Also misleading is the use of names, such as "cultivated meat" to - underlines Coldiretti - build a "perceived" that refers to plants, and therefore to the earth and healthiness. In contrast, synthetic meat is produced from strips of muscle fiber, which grow through the fusion of embryonic stem cells inside a bio-reactor using tissue engineering techniques that have been practiced for several years in regenerative medicine. The synthetic and engineered product is therefore the result of a laboratory process that has nothing to do with the concept of food.
A further lie is that synthetic meat can feed the world population - adds Coldiretti - becoming a resource accessible to all. On the contrary, it is a business for the few. The technology used has high entry costs and increasing returns to scale – everything necessary for the creation of monopolies. Linking the production of food and its availability to the ignition of a bio-reactor produces the separation of the key players in the supply chain and marginalizes farmers and consumers in particular, increasing inequalities. Investments in the field of synthetic biology are growing a lot in recent years and the busiest names are above all known for being protagonists of the hi-tech sector and the new global finance, from Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft) to Eric Schmidt (co-founder of Google), from Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal) to Marc Andreessen (founder of Netscape), from Jerry Yang (co-founder of Yahoo!) to Vinod Khosla (Sun Microsystems). In 2020 alone, 366 million dollars were raised invested in the artificial meat sector. In the last 5 years (2016-2020) investments have grown by about 6000%.
With the paradox that these private initiatives have also received public support as in the case of the allocation of 2 million euros of funds for the recovery from Covid granted by the European Union to two Dutch companies engaged in the production of "meat" in the laboratory from cells in vitro, Nutreco and Mosa Meat where the famous American actor Leonardo DiCaprio has also invested, who certainly does not need the money of European citizens.
"The lies of test-tube meat confirm that behind the repeated and unfounded alarmism about red meat there is a precise strategy of the multinationals which with skilful marketing operations aim to modify natural food styles based on quality and tradition" said the president of the Coldiretti Ettore Prandini underlining that “we are ready to give battle because that of Frankenstein meat is a future that we will not let ourselves be eaten by. Without forgetting that the breeding activity not only has a food function but also has a social and environmental relevance because when a stable closes - concludes Prandini - an entire system made up of animals, meadows for forage, typical cheeses and above all of people committed to fighting, often for entire generations, the depopulation and degradation of territories especially in disadvantaged areas".
