The Chambers of Agriculture of the Austrian states of Carinthia and Styria have presented a petition against cultivated meat at the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee.
Called “Lab Meat? No, thank you!”, the petition has gained almost 70,000 signatures and was presented in person by Andreas Steinegger and Siegfried Huber, presidents of the agricultural chambers of Styria and Carinthia respectively. They claim that their intention is to protect farms and maintain high food quality standards.
According to Eurotoday, Huber has previously said that cultivated products could threaten “sustainable” small beef and dairy farms. Supporters of the petition also claim that cultivated meat is energy-intensive to produce and has unclear long-term health effects.
However, it should be noted that research has found little difference in the environmental impact of animal products produced on organic farms versus factory farms, challenging the idea that smaller operations are more sustainable. (Plant-based foods, on the other hand, were found to have a significantly lower impact.) Furthermore, while current cultivated meat production processes may have relatively high energy demands, they also have lower land use requirements than conventional meat and may reduce water use and emissions to waterbodies.
Rigorous novel foods process
Regarding health effects, cultivated products will have to pass the EU’s rigorous novel foods approval process to ensure that they are safe to consume before they become available to buy. The European Food Safety Authority is currently reviewing applications for the approval of certain cultivated products, but the petition is calling for these approvals to be halted and for bans to be introduced in Austria and the EU as a whole.
The Chamber of Agriculture of Carinthia previously commissioned a survey which reportedly found that 90% of respondents were unwilling to eat cultivated meat regularly, 72% had health risk concerns, and 82% wanted to ban the technology. The Chamber has used these results to justify its advocacy against cultivated meat, though it should be noted that Carinthia is a deeply rural state and the opinions of its residents may not reflect the views of Austria as a whole.
The opposition echoes attempts by the animal agriculture industry to restrict the labelling of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives. Lobbyists often claim that they are concerned about consumer confusion and public health, but in many cases have admitted that they feel threatened by these products and are worried about losing market share.
Unfortunately, efforts to ban cultivated meat have already been successful in Italy (though it is unclear whether this is enforceable) and several U.S. states. It remains to be seen whether the new petition will have an impact on EU law.
