Intensive farming and slaughterhouses are in conflict with the Paris Declaration and the Lisbon Treaty, which define all Animals, without any distinction, as sentient beings, recognizing them the same inalienable rights to existence.

Intensive farming practices and slaughterhouses are a serious and constant threat to public health, which is a fundamental right of Citizens, so their closure would represent a valid prevention tool against future new epidemics.

To protect the rights of Animals and the Health of Citizens, as stated above, it is essential to provide for the conversion of the animal farming activities currently carried out into other ones aimed at obtaining plant proteins or proteins from cell culture produced in a vegan and cruelty-free and eco-sustainable manner.

WITH THIS INITIATIVE OF OURS WE THEREFORE ASK THE EU:

1. to protect the health of citizens, for animal justice and that of the environment, for the legislation to be enacted at European level that promotes research for the production of “clean” and “ethical” cellular meat, incentivizes the production of meat from cellular cultivation, as well as the production of plant proteins, including plant versions for dairy and eggs.

2. to enact European laws that establish a precise program for the definitive closure of animal farms and slaughterhouses, starting with intensive ones but subsequently, in a short and certain timeframe, also of all the others, as places of animal exploitation and suffering.

In recent months we have reported the innovative research MEAT FROM A FEATHER that the Save The Chickens Foundation has funded at the Department of Biotechnology of the University of Trento. We now want to update you on the results obtained so far and on the program that will be carried out between now and the conclusion scheduled for late 2024 or early 2025.

The team of Professors Biressi, Conti and Nike Schiavo is proceeding according to the program that foresees the conclusion of the first research phase by the end of the year. A first batch of cellular material will thus be available, ready to be used for "reproduction" in quantities no longer made in the laboratory but in industrial Bioreactors, thus being able to start the first production tests for the real market.

After having managed to collect the stem cells in a way that is not cruel to the animals using one of their feathers taken without suffering, the effort of the researchers is now oriented towards the preparation of a quantity of cushioned cells, that is capable of acting as a basis for effective multiplication, avoiding having to take them from the animals every time. After the experimental phase, in fact, the production procedure will take the cellular material from special warehouses to be processed to produce commercial quantities for the market at companies specialized in cell culture.

To produce cultured meat that is similar to traditional meat also in terms of appearance and consistency, it is necessary to optimize the ratio between muscle fibers and fat fibers that, to achieve a perfect imitation of the traditional product, will be combined with plant-based supports. From the point of view of flavor, the many tasting tests that have been done (with different purposes) by supporters of cultured meat and by its detractors confirm a good similarity, while for the consistency, further improvements are needed.

The virtuous characteristics of cellular meat compared to that produced in traditional farms are many, starting with those of an ethical nature, namely the fact that humans will no longer need to artificially breed animals (sentient beings), force theminto captivity, inflict pain and torture during their unnatural short existence aimed only at a subsequent bloody killing for human food purposes.

The advantages due to the reduction of the impact on the environment are also significant, given that more than half of methane emissions are produced by intensive animal farming. Health safety resulting from processes that take place entirely in much more controllable environments is certainly more guaranteed, a lower use of resources such as water and land and the possibility of dosing production according to need definitely tip the judgment in favor of cultured meat.

Cellular cultivation will allow in the coming years to progressively eliminate the unacceptable suffering unjustly inflicted on millions of sentient beings, thus responding not only to the requests of animal rights movements but also to an indisputable superior concept of equity and justice. In the presence of alternatives such as both cultured meat and plant-based versions, it no longer makes sense to kill animals for food. The unmotivated suffering caused to animals cannot have a place in a society that considers itself civilized.

To counter some of the statements that are biasedly circulated, one can object that history teaches us that innovation always improves living conditions and that for every technology that dies out, others are developed. The transformations we are going through on the subject of animal farming and new technologies will make us better and more just!