Deputy wants to ban laboratory-grown meat – 09/23/2023 – Panel SA

Federal deputy Tião Medeiros (PP-PR) filed a project with the Chamber to prohibit any type of action involving research, production and commercialization of meat grown in Brazil. According to the parliamentarian, the measure is necessary to “protect the national livestock industry”.

Considered the “food of the future”, cultivated protein is developed by 156 companies around the world, and received, until last year, a total investment of US$ 2.8 billion — a value that should exceed US$ 20 billion in 2030, from according to The Good Food Institute (GFI).

In this technique, currently being developed by large companies in the sector and by Embrapa, meat is obtained by cell multiplication, in the laboratory, and does not involve slaughtered animals.

JBS, for example, one of the leaders in global agribusiness, has already invested more than US$100 million in the development of protein grown in Brazil and Spain. This week, the company announced the creation of a targeted research center in Florianópolis (SC) and will invest US$22 million in the unit by next year.

Recently, Upside Foods and Good Meat received approval from the United States health regulator, the FDA, and the Department of Agriculture to move forward with the commercialization of cultured protein

For deputy Tião Medeiros, however, countries with large livestock herds, such as Brazil, are threatened by the development of laboratory-grown meat.

Medeiros states that livestock farming, which he considers one of the country’s economic pillars, will be destabilized by the new industry. Jobs, exports and tax revenue will fall, according to the parliamentarian.

The deputy’s account includes family businesses, which are supposed to be bankrupt, and even Brazilian barbecue, a symbol of “culture and national identity”.

Companies that violate the law proposed by Medeiros will pay fines of R$1 million to R$10 million, in addition to having all products, machinery, samples and genetic research materials destroyed.

Censorship of science

The Good Food Institute, an entity that promotes alternatives to animal proteins, states that the deputy’s proposal is an attempt to “stop innovation through unfounded arguments that contradict science itself.”

Cultivated protein, says the GFI, is a diversification of agribusiness and not its replacement.

“Alternative proteins (plant-based, cultivated and obtained by fermentation) could represent between 11% and 22% of the global meat market by 2035. Prohibiting companies from carrying out research on national soil will not prevent them from doing so in another country , will only make the development of the cultured meat production chain unfeasible, the generation of new jobs in Brazil and the right of consumers to have more options on their plates”, said the GFI in a note.

Embrapa, a public company linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, leads public studies for the development of laboratory-grown chicken meat. According to the organization, it is only through research and innovation that society will be able to mitigate the problems of hunger and the growing demand for food in the coming years.

Researcher at Embrapa Swine and Poultry, Ana Paula Bastos states that the proposal being processed in the Chamber is an attempt to “censor Brazilian science” and block innovation with arguments that contradict science and important institutions such as the UN Department for Food and Agriculture.

“It is therefore of great importance to continue research and development of alternative methods for producing these products. The greatest hopes for an alternative to industrial agriculture and its associated problems lie in cultured meat,” said the researcher.

With Diego Felix

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