Good news or a step backwards? Hungary’s parliament bans lab-grown meat
Hungary’s National Assembly on Tuesday voted to introduce a full ban on the production and sale of lab-grown meat. Under the new rules, it will be prohibited to manufacture or market any product made from animal cells or tissues grown in laboratory conditions, except for medical and veterinary purposes.
The legislation passed with 140 votes in favour, 10 against and 18 abstentions.
What does the ban cover – and what does it not?
According to Telex, the ban applies solely to lab-grown meat, meaning products cultivated from animal-derived cells outside a living organism. It does not affect plant-based meat alternatives, which will continue to be freely produced and sold.
The idea of the ban first surfaced last summer but remained stagnant for months. Eventually, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén and Agriculture Minister István Nagy submitted the bill in March this year.
Government: Lab-grown meat is dangerous, uncertain and a threat to tradition
The Ministry of Agriculture has long argued that lab-grown meat “raises numerous questions and concerns” and is presumably unsafe. Officials also claim that the alternative technology has a large ecological footprint and, according to the ministry, could even deepen social inequalities.
Minister István Nagy went further, stating that synthetic meat could “break our traditions and culture”, potentially leading to rootlessness and unforeseeable consequences. (It is worth noting that nobody would have been obliged to eat lab-grown meat; those who prefer conventional meat would still be free to consume it, regardless of what others choose.)
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also addressed the topic in his 2024 annual address, saying Brussels wants to “force synthetic and GMO meat on Hungarians” instead of fresh domestic products.
Supporters say it is precisely a step towards the future
Advocates of cultivated meat argue that laboratory meat production could:
- significantly reduce the environmental burden of agriculture,
- offer a more sustainable solution to future food crises,
- put an end to large-scale animal farming and slaughter.
The technology is advancing internationally. Singapore approved the first lab-grown meat product in 2020, and in 2023 the US Food and Drug Administration concluded that products from two companies – Eat Just and Upside Foods – are safe to consume and comparable to traditional chicken.
Still, lab-grown meat is currently available only in a handful of restaurants in Washington, San Francisco and Singapore.
Italy was the first in the EU
Hungary is the second EU member state to introduce such a ban. Italy prohibited the production and sale of cultivated meat in November 2023. The Italian decision triggered intense street demonstrations: the Coldiretti farmers’ association and the +Europa party protested against one another, and tensions escalated to the point where police had to intervene.
In Italy, food is a central part of national identity, and supporters of the ban mainly cited the protection of cultural and quality traditions.
Broad political support for the ban in Hungary
In Tuesday’s vote, not only Fidesz–KDNP but also Jobbik, Mi Hazánk, Párbeszéd, and three former LMP MPs supported the prohibition.
The new law is considered one of the strictest regulations on cultivated meat worldwide and is likely to spark major debates about the future of the food industry, both in Hungary and internationally in the coming years.
Our earlier report:
What a terrible decision. Banning the future of food production.
Modern way of “farming” animals is more like a factory – bringing up chickens in small cages and raising cows in feedslots their whole lives without animals having any possibility to ever go out during their lives. These conditions that are commonly used to produce the cheapest meat have absolutely nothing to do with farming traditions. These types of animal cruelty factories could be replaced with artificial meat when the growing methods of artificial meat have been developed to allow large scale cultivation.
And those who want traditionally sourced meat, could still buy it from shops that sell meat sourced from traditionally maintained animal farms. Where animals can at least live a bit according to their species normal life before slaughtering.
But no, its something new and different than what we are used to, so lets ban it without understanding the possibilities. Good for Singapore and USA to allow it. I hope more countries follow them and allow the research and use of artificially grown meat products.
“What a terrible decision. Banning the future of food production”
Yep … transfats and margarine were great advances forward, as were soft drinks, Cheetos, potato-chips, breakfast cereals, candy bars, and all the other foods that have been invented – all of which have made Americans incredibly unhealthy in my lifetime.
Yippee hooray, let’s put agra-tech companies in charge of our ‘future’ – that will surely work out well!
God bless Hungary for, like Russia, securing a natural organic food supply.
The future is back to organic natural food – not labs.
Nice little list you made. Try next googling “Healthy food innovation” and you will get a different kind of list, a long list.
“Back to organic natural food”, speaking like a true conservative – always wanting to go backwards. As if organic farming and innovative artificial meat production could not co-exist. Btw. Labs don’t make food, innovations happen there, which could be then adopted in food production. But innovations in this field will NOT happen in Hungary, thanks to this ban.
Neither I nor the article said that “lets put agra-tech companies in charge of our ‘future’”. Science and research is the key to animal cruelty free future – definitely not “traditions and culture”.
“Synthetic meat could break our traditions and cultures potentially leading to rootlessness and unforeseen consequences”. Fidesz politicians have a unique ability to pile on the bull-sht. Do people actually take these kinds of idiotic statements seriously? Never mind the ending of corruption, etc. – the one thing I look forward to when they are out of office is the end of the daily ludicrous statements that treat the Hungarian public as total idiots.
Even the brain-dead lefties support this one, chump.
So sad to witness Fidesz living in your head rent-free. America has T.D.S. I guess we have F.D.S. As our favorite President would say: “Sad.”
You see Larry, there are idiot who believe this bulls#it. And here is Steiner as a proof. 😀 LOL
“Synthetic meat could break our traditions and cultures potentially leading to rootlessness and unforeseen consequences”.
Nothing could be more true than this statement, Dear Larry.
The Left used to be in favour or natural and organic foods, but, now, it seems to be in favour of everything artificial and dangerous.
Fidesz, as per usual, watches Mi Hazank Mozgolom, and then often adopts their domestic measures, because Mi Hazank has common sense.
Another way that Hungary is leading the West.
A country may be poor, financially, but not necessarily in other ways.
The crazies on here want to eat Franken-meats, which in itself is more than reason enough to ban them.
Seriously, though, the days of artificial meats will come but we’re nowhere near there yet. Far more qualitative and quantitative longitudinal studies on the long-term impacts need to be conducted before lab-grown flesh can be deemed anywhere close to safe for mass-market deployment.
You can make an argument about safety if you want and ask that the safety be proven. What in the world does “culture” and “tradition” have to do with anything? If that was the case we would still be using horse and buggy for transport and indoor shopping malls and Western films would be banned . The nothing burger word that Istvan Nagy uses that is absolutely delightful is “rootlessness.”
‘What in the world does “culture” and “tradition” have to do with anything?
What it means, Dear Larry – is that these products and processes have been proven and verified by untold thousands of years of human existence to be safe and healthy.
“Far more qualitative and quantitative longitudinal studies on the long-term impacts need to be conducted before lab-grown flesh can be deemed anywhere close to safe for mass-market deployment.’
We will not be able to trust those studies, Herr Steiner, because, as I am sure you know – they will be manipulated by the producers.
Everything else you say I completely agree with!
Thank you for having common sense about our food supply!
“Rootlessness”. Ethnonationalism, and an anti-S*mitic dog-whistle : Who are the cosmopolitans, the “rootless cosmopolitans” (безродный космополит) disloyal to the Stalinist Soviet Union, the gyökértelen ember disloyal to Orbánist Hungary ? Why, the J*ws. Soros. Brussels. Internationalism. Trans-fats and poisonous “meat”. Oh, they’re tricky ones, the enemies of Hungary !