Cultivated-meat plant of Good Meat in Alameda, California (Just Eat)
When I wrote about the three mistakes people make about cultivated meat — comparing its current price to that of traditional (and subsidized) meat, comparing cultivated meat to a perfect world, and betting against progress — I also pointed out the industry does have real challenges:
Growing more than muscle fibers in order to make complex meats, like steaks.
Cultivating meat at scale.
Getting regulatory and political approval.
I investigated those challenges for Nieuwe Oogst, a Dutch agrarian magazine. Here is a summary for English readers. (more…)
Palacio de las Cortes, seat of the Spanish Congress of Deputies, in Madrid, August 16, 2017 (Shutterstock/Vivvi Smak)
Spaniards elect a new Congress and Senate on Sunday. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the conservative People’s Party, hopes to unseat Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a Socialist, but surveys give neither man a majority. The relative strength of the far left and far right, which have been polling at a combined 25 to 30 percent percent, could decide who forms the next government.
This election guide explains everything you need to know: the Spanish electoral system, the parties, the issues and which coalitions may be possible. (more…)
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte arrives in Brussels to meet with other European leaders, February 12, 2015 (European Council)
Mark Rutte stunned the Dutch parliament on Monday, when he told lawmakers he would not seek his center-right party’s nomination for a fifth term as prime minister.
Rutte had already submitted his resignation to King Willem-Alexander after the four parties in his government failed to do a deal on asylum reform, but he left the door open in a news conference on Friday to running again.
In power for thirteen years, Rutte is Europe’s longest-serving elected leader after Viktor Orbán. His surprise exit, combined with the meteoric rise of a new farmers’ party and the likely merger of the Labor Party and Greens, could redraw the Dutch political landscape, which has been dominated by Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) for thirteen years.
Rutte stays on as caretaker until a successor can be sworn in, which could be a year from now. Elections aren’t due until November. Forming a coalition government in the Netherlands usually requires months of negotiation. Reforms in agriculture, housing and labor law may be put on hold in the meantime. (more…)
Spanish People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo gives a press conference after meeting with other European conservative party leaders in Brussels, June 29 (PP)
Polls predict the conservative People’s Party (PP) will win the election in Spain this month. But with 31 to 37 percent of the votes, it would fall well short of a majority.
Leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has said he would first seek the acquiescence of the outgoing Socialist Party, which is polling at 27 to 29 percent, to form a minority government. That may be an option if Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez resigns or is forced out as leader. The centrist wing of his party never warmed to his coalition with the Basque and Catalan separatists and far left.
If the Socialists vote against him, Feijóo would need the support of Vox (Voice). The far-right party rules several Spanish regions and municipalities with the PP.
What would a minority PP government look like? And what might a deal with Vox entail? First I’ll list the highlights from the two parties’ election programs, then some of the concessions the PP has made to Vox in the regions. (more…)
Cultivated meat in a petri dish (iStock/Svetlana Cherruty)
Two Californian companies, Good Meat and Upside Foods, have received approval to sell cultivated meat in the United States. They plan to offer it in upscale restaurants first and in grocery stores by 2028.
It makes America the second country in the world to legalize cultivated meat. Singapore was first in 2020. Israel could become the third: its regulators have received applications by food companies.
Europe is falling behind. It may take years before the EU allows meat grown from animal cells on its single market. However, the Netherlands — where cultivated meat was invented — is making it possible to taste cultivated meat at its two companies, Meatable and Mosa Meat. RTL News reports that the Dutch Food Safety Authority is expected to issue guideline for tastings in the coming weeks.
It is exciting news for those of us who like to eat meat, but don’t like to slaughter animals for it. Two in three Americans would try cultivated meat, according to a survey. The Good Food Institute, a think tank that promotes alternative proteins, has found similar interest in Europe.
A loud minority is vehemently opposed, and they are fed arguments by a livestock industry that considers cultivated meat a threat.
Let’s tackle the three biggest mistakes they make. (more…)
Pedro Sánchez speaks at a conference of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, January 30, 2016 (PSOE)
Elections are held in over 8,000 Spanish municipalities, 38 provinces and twelve out of seventeen regions on Sunday.
They are the first test for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’ Socialist Party regional elections were held in the Basque Country and Galicia during the pandemic in 2020.
This guide explains how the elections work, what municipalities, provinces and regions do, and how the political landscape has shifted in Spain in the last few years. (more…)
Restaurant in Venice, Italy, October 5, 2019 (Unsplash/Clay Banks)
Giorgia Meloni is cutting benefits for out-of-work Italians, reducing taxes for employers and making it easier to hire workers on a short-term contract.
Many of the reforms were in the prime minister’s election manifesto, but the reintroduction of job vouchers — a way to hire workers without a contract — is a surprise.
I’ll explain what’s changing, what isn’t — and why Italy’s labor market is such a mess. (more…)
European commissioner Thierry Breton is welcomed by Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte in his office in The Hague, September 9, 2022 (European Commission)
Mark Rutte’s coalition government in the Netherlands has agreed various spending reforms and additional climate policies to keep its budget deficit under 3 percent and achieve a 55-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The four ruling parties — two liberal, two Christian democrat — were in a rush to do a deal before parliament goes on summer recess.
Negotiations resulted in a delay in child-care reform, an expansion of hydrogen and solar power, and higher subsidies for home insulation and secondhand electric cars, paid for in part by raising taxes on coal use and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.
Rutte’s VVD (of which I am a member) and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) blocked higher taxes on petrol and meat. (more…)
Skyline of Barcelona, Spain (Unsplash/Anastasiia Tarasova)
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has agreed to cap rent increases through 2025 and subsidize the construction of more low-rent housing in a deal with Basque and Catalan left-wing parties in Congress.
Sánchez hopes to get the reforms through Congress before the municipal elections in May, but his government does not yet have a majority and his Socialist Workers’ Party is down in the polls.
I’ll explain what the reforms are, why the government believes they are needed and whether they are likely to pass. (more…)
Wind turbines near Mölsheim, Germany (Unsplash/Karsten Würth)
EU countries have agreed to increase their share of renewable energy. The European Commission has proposed to fund green hydrogen and set goals for clean tech as well as the mining of rare earth materials needed to make electric cars and solar panels.
The proposals fall under the European Green Deal, which aims to cut the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions 55 percent by 2030 and to net-zero by 2050.
Critics worry the sustainability push will come at the expense of competition, nature conservation and free trade.
Here is an overview of what has been agreed, what has been proposed, the costs and the tradeoffs. (more…)
Aerial view of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, April 28, 2020 (Unsplash/Richard Brunsveld)
Dutch voters elect provincial deputies on Wednesday, who will elect the new Senate in May.
Elections for island councils in the Caribbean Netherlands and water boards in the European Netherlands are held on the same day, making this a midterm election for Prime Minister Mark Rutte in everything but name.
In this election guide, I will get you up to speed. With the disclaimer that I am a candidate for Rutte’s liberal party in North Holland, but I’ll do my best to be fair! (more…)
American president Joe Biden visits Customs and Border Protection in El Paso, Texas, January 8 (White House/Adam Schultz)
Immigrants who enter the United States illegally may soon be disqualified from applying for asylum.
President Joe Biden proposed the change after a record illegal border crossings were counted in the fiscal year that ended in September: 2.4 million, up from 1.7 million a year earlier.
By refusing asylum to some immigrants altogether, Biden would go further than his Republican predecessor. Donald Trump returned applicants to Mexico, where they had to wait for months or even years while their asylum request was reviewed.
Biden would also speed up deportations of illegal aliens who have not applied for asylum.
Unlike Trump, the Democrat is at the same time making it easier for specific groups of refugees to come to America. (more…)
Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, speaks with Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands in Prague, Czech Republic, October 7, 2022 (European Council)
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte is arguing for stricter European asylum rules and finding a listening ear in Brussels.
“What you see is that everyone fell asleep a little during corona,” he said after meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, whose proposals match his own. “At the time, the asylum figures were very low.”
An increase in applications after COVID overwhelmed the Dutch immigration system. Several hundred asylum seekers had to camp and sleep outside the application center in Ter Apel, where there weren’t enough beds free. (more…)
French president Emmanuel Macron confers with his staff in the Elysée Palace in Paris, February 5, 2020 (Elysée/Soazig de la Moissonniere)
Emmanuel Macron’s government has proposed to raise the French pension age from 62 to 64 and abolish early retirement in the public sector.
Pension reform was one of the reasons I endorsed Macron for a second term. French pensions are among the most generous in the world, yet Macron’s predecessors balked at raising the retirement age for fear of protests.
I have an op-ed in EUobserver arguing Macron is doing the right thing. I will summarize my arguments here and also give the arguments against reform. (more…)
Application center for asylum seekers in Ter Apel, the Netherlands (IND)
Europe is the throes of another asylum crisis. The 27 countries of the EU plus Norway and Switzerland, which have open borders with the bloc, received some 98,000 asylum applications in September, the most in six years. Figures for the first nine months of 2022 suggest that most, and possibly all, member states will match the records of 2015, when 1.3 million people applied for asylum in the EU.
Some 548,000 asylum seekers are waiting for a decision on whether they can stay.
The figures include few Ukrainians, who can remain in the EU for up to three years without applying for asylum.
I’ll take a deep dive into the numbers before looking at how three member states are coping with the high influx: France, Italy and Netherlands. (more…)
