Italy's lower house passes ban on cultivated meat, 159 to 53
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
- The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
Italy's lower house voted in November 2023 to ban the production and sale of cultivated meat, and several US states have since banned it. At stake for nature is whether replacing livestock meat would release land, a question the sources reviewed do not answer.
What happened
On 16 November 2023 Italy's Chamber of Deputies approved a ban on the production and sale of cultivated meat, by 159 votes to 53, with 34 abstentions, Il Post reported.
Il Post reported that Coldiretti, Italy's largest farmers' organisation, demonstrated outside the Prime Minister's office, and described it as very influential in politics.
Florida and Alabama (2024), Mississippi, Texas (for two years from 1 September 2025), Indiana, Montana and Nebraska have banned cultivated meat, and a law firm's summary also lists Missouri, whose law is a labelling rule.
In court and with insurers
Lawsuits and rulings
Insurers
What we don't know
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Coldiretti began a signature campaign in November 2022.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Italian fines range from 10,000 to 60,000 euros.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: the European Commission said Italy breached the EU's TRIS notification procedure.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Hungary's parliament adopted a ban on 18 November 2025 by 140 votes to 10, after the Commission had called the draft unjustified.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: the European Court of Justice ruled in October 2024 that France cannot ban meat names for plant-based products; the European Parliament voted in 2025 to restrict such names, and 31 terms were banned in a later compromise.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: alternative protein investment fell from roughly 5 to 7 billion US dollars at its 2021 peak to 881 million in 2025.
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: many cultivated meat companies and mycelium leather makers have closed or paused production.
- None on record Not known: the effective date of the EU meat-name restrictions.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Press and investigations
- Italy's cultivated meat ban approved by the Chamber of DeputiesIl Post · 16 November 2023
- Hungarian parliament votes to ban cultivated meatVegconomist · November 2025