Cell-based meat is becoming a very heated and debated topic, especially in Italy where a law was ratified that bans the production, distribution and consumption of cellular culture products deriving from vertebrate animals (although, it must be said, the law itself will become ineffective in case the EU approves these food for the market). On the one hand, a techno-optimistic approach to the issue suggests that, in times of climate crisis, this novel food might strongly diminish farming’s impact on the environment; similarly, animalist associations and advocates are in favour of cell-based meat out of their concern for animal welfare. On the other, different subjects across society are highly critical, or at least sceptical, about it, for they see it as a threat to health, traditions, food sovereignty, or simply a further occasion for big and venture capital to control the food market and develop profitable niches. Some simply ask: do we really need it if we can just reduce and/or eliminate meat, fish and animal derivatives from our diets – with health advantages too?

As a research group, we “met” the question of cultured meat in 2021, when we were contacted by biologists working on the development of cell-based meat in order to understand aspects of social acceptability and market opportunities for this novel food. We noticed, straightaway, that the vast majority of the social science literature on the topic seemed to take for granted the desiderabilty of cell-based meat, conceptualising consumers’ resistance to it as mainly a “barrier” to the adoption of more sustainable food practices. This approach, in our perception, tends to silence and downplay subjects’ agency, critical capacity, needs and desires. Indeed, in asking questions and expressing their diffidence towards certain forms of innovation, subjects raise important political questions that problematise the naturalised and taken-for-granted directions of technoscientific development, putting into light their character of choice rather than necessity.

For these reasons, it seems to us, it is important to investigate public perceptions around cell-based meat: not for “convincing” people to consume it, nor to bring forth a necessarily oppositive political agenda, but rather for creating space for collective debates around the future of food to develop. This might increase opportunities for democratic deliberation and participation to societal decision-making around food-systems transition.

Our work on the theme of cell-based meat develops along two main axes:

• Alice Dal Gobbo and Francesca Forno al working on public perceptions of cell-based meat among potential consumers. We are developing both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (focus group) data on a national base in order to investigate perceptions, attitudes and political positions

• In collaboration with Niccolò Bertuzzi at the University of Parma, Alice Dal Gobbo is also inquirying around public-science controversies around cell-based meat, carrying out a nation-level qualitative study based on in-depth qualitative interviews that involve both scientists and members of social movements relevant to the debate

To keep up to date on what we are doing, here are some highlights:

Seminars and conference presentations

• *forthcoming* 25th March 2024, Alice Dal Gobbo and Francesca Forno “La percezione della carne colturale tra i consumatori italiani”, Law Faculty, University of Trento
• 15th September 2023, Alice Dal Gobbo and Francesca Forno “L’innovazione alimentare nell’Antropocene. Pubblici, scienza e promesse contestate”, XIV Convegno di Sociologia dell’Ambiente, Siracusa, Università di Enna-Kore.
• 10th March 2023, Alice Dal Gobbo and Francesca Forno “Good for thee and not for me. A pilot study into cultivated meat potential eaters”. Novel Foods and Novel Food Production: A Solution to Food Systems Sustainability? Conference, American University of Rome.

Publications

• Dal Gobbo, A. (2023) ‘Of post-animal meat and other forms of food innovation: a critical and intersectional reading from the perspective of political ecology’, Consumption and Society, 1(aop), pp. 1–10. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1332/RVDO1043.