Battery plant construction to be banned in Budapest forever?

The opposition Democratic Coalition is submitting to the Budapest city assembly a proposal that would ban the construction of battery plants in the capital, the party’s assembly group leader said on Wednesday.

Battery plant reduces arable land in an area?

The recent controversy around the Chinese battery plant being built in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, has made it clear to the country “that the government doesn’t care about Hungarians’ health or protecting the environment”, Sándor Szaniszló, the mayor of Budapest’s 18th district, told an online press conference.

The Debrecen plant will significantly reduce the amount of arable land in the area, Szaniszló said, adding that its operation would be a danger to the city’s drinking water supply and air quality. He said the government wanted to build similar plants in other parts of the country as well.

Read also: Battery plant construction protested against in Hungary

Hungary mandates labelling practices for insect-based foods

Hungary’s Agriculture Ministry has changed rules to require food containing insect protein to be clearly labelled and sold only on designated shelf space, Agriculture Minister István Nagy said on Wednesday. Consumers must be able to “distinguish and differentiate” products with insect protein under the new rules. Nagy noted that the European Commission has already approved four insects as commercial food sources, a decision Hungary alone opposed, as the European Union is faced with neither a food nor a protein shortage.

Surveys and research show that “Hungarians don’t want to eat insects”, he added. He cited a survey by food safety authority Nebih indicating that over 70 percent of Hungarians “strongly reject the possibility” of eating food containing insect protein. He also pointed to the importance of preserving gastronomic traditions.