I think there are two things to consider here. One is a question: is Italy a player in this field and do they have research companies that have a vested interest in this? I don't know the answer to that question, but if they don't have much to lose in the short term it probably doesn't represent much of a lost opportunity.
Besides, it's Italy. It is about as politically stable as a jenga tower where all the easy pieces have already been removed. I'm not sure how robust such a ban might be if economic interests were to change.
The other is an observation: Italy has a lot of high value PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) products. Compare countries like Italy and France, which have many PDO products, to, for instance, the US, which has extremely few.
Of course, I haven't made a systematic study to map out how many PDO products countries have and cross-referenced that to how skeptical they are towards cultivated meat products, but it would surprise me if there was no correlation. This represents a guess on my part.
IMO Italy has lots of high value origin stuff because they value and care about tradition and realness and so on.
Go to Italy and you'll see real stonework. If you want to find a micrometer layer of gold on top of plastic, or not much more marble on top of concrete, then go do Saudi or UAE. Not Italy. The stone you find there is real, and so's the porchetta. So they get PDO designation for the stuff they care about, and abhor makebelieve alternatives for the same reason that they value the real porchetta.
I used to think the outrage Italians show when you mess with Italian dishes on Youtube was exaggerated. Then I worked with a couple of Italians from the north of Italy. Oh boy do they take food in general, and their national cuisine in particular, seriously :-)
The food I get in Italy is on average substantially better than the one I get in Vancouver, so that protection of food has some serious value.
when I arrived in Canada, I asked what is a canadian dish and I've been told poutine, nothing else. I was shocked, in Italy I can't count all traditional dishes, let alone know all of them
(I'm of Italian origin).
That being said, banning food is not a good idea, but I can see also a rationale for banning it. We'll see how it goes
Banning food is common enough practice. You may have heard the story about European eggs being banned in the US because they fall short of the hygienic requirements, while US eggs are banned in Europe because they fall short of the hygienic requirements? The story is true.
Much else too. You can't import "prosciutto di parma" into Italy, it's banned.
(Well, technically I suppose you could export the legal stuff and then reimport it.)
Besides, it's Italy. It is about as politically stable as a jenga tower where all the easy pieces have already been removed. I'm not sure how robust such a ban might be if economic interests were to change.
The other is an observation: Italy has a lot of high value PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) products. Compare countries like Italy and France, which have many PDO products, to, for instance, the US, which has extremely few.
Of course, I haven't made a systematic study to map out how many PDO products countries have and cross-referenced that to how skeptical they are towards cultivated meat products, but it would surprise me if there was no correlation. This represents a guess on my part.