Carne coltivata: La rivoluzione a tavola?

Meat consumption is one of the most ambivalent phenomena of our times.

On the one hand, demand continues to grow, on the other hand, it has never before come under criticism.

An exponential number of people, especially in industrialised countries, choose a plant-based (or vegetarian) diet not only because of the health advantages, but also because they are convinced that the consumption of meat (and animal derivatives) is morally wrong.

The debate on synthetic meat, or more correctly cultivated meat, is present in Italy through newspaper articles, stances of various associations such as Slow Food, economic surveys, contradictory statements of ministers, parliamentarians and opinion leaders. There is a lack of wide-ranging interventions.
In other European countries, farmed meat is already the subject of public, scientific and political debate. It is a polarising issue that divides interest groups hitherto thought to be homogeneous, such as environmentalists and animal rights advocates.

Cultivated meat has some advantages from a climatic point of view (saving land and water), but poses other problems in terms of energy balance (for the creation and operation of the bioreactors needed to produce it); it is presented as ‘clean’ because it circumvents the need to administer antibiotics to animals, but is seen by many as ‘artificial’ food, not genuine and therefore suspect.

Arianna Ferrari offers here an overview of the different visions that drive scientists and promoters of cultured meat and a critical analysis of the ethical and political issues raised by this innovation in a language that is accessible to the general public.