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Re:Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage by somenameforme on Wednesday March 29, 2023 @11:59AM (#35359117)
Nearly all (if not literally all) of the dystopic sounding stuff being pitched as the way of the future is coming from the World Economic Forum [1]. 'Eat the bugs', "Lockdowns are quietly improving cities around the world", "You will own nothing, and be happy", are some of the more visible positions/slogans put out by the WEF. It's primarily made up of a global 'alliance' of the ultra-rich, politicians, large multinational corporations, and banks. An upstanding, ethical, and socially minded collection if I've ever seen one.

Reversing a law, especially one that would be exceptionally popular is unlikely to succeed. By contrast, so long as e.g. lab meat remains legal - there are lots of ways to work behind the scenes to achieve your ends. One of the easiest is labeling. By allowing lab meat to simply be labeled as meat, consumer choice can be largely eliminated. Pair this with artificial subsidies to the lab meat industry, and you completely undermine the market in a rather quiet fashion. It all has the same effect, without the same degree of outrage, as trying to overturn a popular law would.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Economic_Forum

Re:Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage by SketchySeaBeast on Wednesday March 29, 2023 @12:12PM (#35359299)
Oh good, we have our WEF boogie men, who I guess the Italian government is currently taunting. I expect they'll experience some comeuppance from the WEF? Or is this one of those "the enemy is both powerful and weak" situations where the WEF has incredible promised power, but still seems utterly ineffective? The same shadowy forces can easily change the definition of what constitutes lab grown meat, circumventing the law and introducing it into the system. You're not guaranteeing anything with this law.

> By allowing lab meat to simply be labeled as meat, consumer choice can be largely eliminated.

By making lab meat illegal, consume choice HAS been eliminated. This is literally the exact same problem that's being suggested as a slippery slope in plain view.

Re:Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage by somenameforme on Wednesday March 29, 2023 @02:15PM (#35361073)
The WEF messaging is not a secret, neither is their membership list (at least for corporations). They're pushing for lab meat hard. [1] And that sample is just a fragment of what's out there. Just do a quick search for something like "site:weforum.org lab grown meat". And so this really changes this issue. For instance, in America Kroger is not only the largest grocery chain but also affiliated with the WEF [2].

So if you're an American farmer, you should expect Kroger (among other WEF affiliated businesses) to treat lab meat in an unfairly preferential way. Even if you would feel comfortable competing against lab meat on a "level" playing field, this changes the game, and creates a much bigger motivation for things exactly like what's happening in Italy right now.

[1] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/will-we-eat-lab-grown...

[1] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/06/you-will-be-eating-re...

[1] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/11/how-a-new-approach-to...

[2] https://www.weforum.org/organizations/kroger

Re:Italy moves to ban lab-grown meat to protect food heritage by SketchySeaBeast on Wednesday March 29, 2023 @02:57PM (#35361614)
Are you saying the American farmer doesn't have massive lobbying power and government support? And again, this is taking away consumer choice by explicitly siding with the Italian farmer. It's explicitly anti-consumer.

I also think you have the push/pull the wrong way - Kroger wants a say in WEF's decisions, it's not controlled by the WEF. It's always going to do what's best for Kroger.