Italian lawmakers banned cell-culture meat and blocked plant-based proteins from being labeled with meat terminology.

I suspect most animal ag people don’t really have a moral problem with ultraprocessed foods. They probably eat such foods regularly themselves and even feed them to their children. Every component of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is ultraprocessed.

These critics’ real objection is that plant-based products threaten livestock farmers’ market share.

So far, cell-culture and plant-based products have not provided much of a threat.

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In backing a ban on cell-culture meat, Italian farmers have indulged farmers in exactly this kind of anticompetitive practice — constraining food choice.

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Livestock production need not be sacrificed on the altar of modernity. But spreading unscientific fears about cell-culture and plant-based products is no more ethical than touting baseless fears about GMOs.

The competition between meat and imitation meat should not be decided by stifling innovation and outlawing non-hazardous products.

The meat industry should win in the marketplace by selling foods people know and enjoy, that meet their ethical expectations, that support convenience and nutrition and cultural relevance.

Trying to ban the competition will endear animal ag to just about no one, especially those people who actually want to eat plant-based products.

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