Italy’s government approved a bill banning the production and use of lab-grown food. If anyone breaks the ban, it will cost perpetrators fines of up to €60,000 (£53,000). The government highlighted its food heritage and health protection as reasons for the ban.

Ministers also cited Italy’s renowned Mediterranean diet as motivation for the measures.

READ MORE: Reasons not to gift a live bunny for Easter

Once processed by parliament, the Italian food industry will not be allowed to make food or feed from cell tissues extracted from vertebrate animals, the bill explains.
An Italian lawmaker, Augusta Montaruli, from Prime Minister Griogia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party says:

We are proud to be the first nation in the world to stop this decadence

A senior member of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, Minister Francesco Lollobrigida says:

Laboratory products in our opinion do not guarantee quality, well-being and the protection of our culture, our tradition

Prime Minister Meloni’s office has vowed to protect Italy’s food industry from technological innovations that are deemed harmful. In light of this, the Agriculture Ministry was renamed to the “Ministry for Agriculture and Food Sovereignty”

READ MORE: Thirty-nine killed in fire at immigration centre in Mexico

But this delivered a blow to some animal welfare groups. They highlight that lab-produced meat is a possible solution to address some environmental issues (carbon emissions) and food safety. The new law has also angered some animal rights groups.

The European Food Safety Authority previously said that cell-based agriculture i.e cultured meat may be considered a promising and innovative solution for “healthy and environmentally friendly food systems”.

READ MORE: Mississippi reels from deadly tornado, more severe weather ahead

Italy’s Giorgia Meloni addressed a ‘flash mob’ organised by an agriculture company, Coldiretti, outside her office in Rome:

We could only celebrate with our farmers a measure that puts our farmers in the vanguard, not just on the issue of defending excellence… but also in defending consumers

The new bill comes hot on the heels of a series of official orders banning the use of flour derived from insects in pizza or pasta.