EU ministers clash over Hungary’s stance on vegetarian, insect-based food

Ministers from agricultural powerhouses Spain and Germany spoke out against Hungary’s stance on “novel foods” at the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH) in Brussels on Monday (15 July).

Over lunch, ministers discussed a note from the Hungarian presidency, seen by Euractiv, advocating the protection of Europe’s culinary traditions from “novel foods” – a broad umbrella term covering various types of products, including edible insects and vegetarian alternatives to dairy and meat.

According to the European Commission, consumption of vegetarian alternatives to meat, dairy and seafood products has increased fivefold since 2011 and is expected to continue to grow. For insects, the European Union has approved the sale of four species so far, with at least eight applications in the pipeline.

However, some of the EU’s leading agri-food producers disagreed with Hungary’s position, arguing that innovation and tradition can co-exist and that new food options need not undermine the bloc’s culinary culture.

Spain’s Agriculture Minister and AGRIFISH Council veteran Luis Planas defended Spanish specialities to journalists on the sidelines of the meeting.

“I was born in Valencia, and I feel very proud of paella, which is a great culinary tradition and a great product,” said Planas, who also revealed his devotion to Andalusia’s cold soups, gazpacho and salmorejo.

Planas stressed that a preference for traditional foods “should not be an excuse to put a blindfold on innovation in food production.”

“Allow me a democratic consideration: In the end, the one who is right is the consumer. And if the consumer asks for new products, we will have to take them into account,” he stressed.

He also noted that products should always be marketed clearly and without misleading consumers with “certain terms.”

The use of terms such as sausage, steak and milk to describe plant-based counterparts has sparked controversy in several EU countries, even reaching the EU’s highest court.

While the document mainly refers to vegetarian alternatives and innovations such as lab-grown meat, Planas fears that Budapest’s reluctance to embrace novelty could extend to crops produced using new genomic techniques (NGTs).

“If this is really a hidden discussion about NGTs, I certainly don’t agree,” said Planas.

Also speaking in favour of consumer choice was Cem Özdemir, Germany’s green agriculture minister. “I’m very proud of my local food (…), but I am not in favour of forcing people to eat this or that,” Özdemir told reporters.

“If people want novel foods, what’s wrong with it? It is the people that have to decide,” he added.

Stewards of tradition

However, some other member states expressed a position more in line with Hungary’s. For instance, Austrian Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig, a member of the centre-right European People’s Party, told Euractiv that the EU should ensure “high quality, traditional, and regional food production.”

“In this regard, I very much welcome today’s debate in Brussels,” said Totschnig. “Our family farms provide comprehensive services to society that go far beyond mere food production,” he added.

On “innovative” products, Totschnig insisted that controversial production techniques such as lab-grown meat should be subject to comprehensive risk assessments and called for labelling requirements for innovative food products.

“We must put in place transparent EU labelling prior to any approval and guarantee an informed purchasing decision and freedom of choice for consumers,” he said.

Italy’s Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida also shared Budapest’s interest in defending and promoting traditional production and reiterated his opposition to artificially produced meat during the AGRIFISH meeting.

“It’s not only about food (…) it also means protecting the land, the environment, culture, tradition, and the quality of life,” Lollobrigida told journalists.

At the same time, he stressed that it was not necessarily the intention of the Hungarian presidency to derrail negotiations on new rules on gene-edited food. “I do not actually read a desire to slow down any process but to know what the directions are,” he said.

Hungary is starting the stalled negotiations on the NGT regulation from scratch, reopening compromises reached in recent months, such as exemptions on traceability and labelling, according to a document seen by Euractiv.

Hungary’s Agriculture Minister István Nagy told journalists on Monday that technical discussions on gene-editing techniques would continue on 19 June, and stressed that the presidency “is trying to find a compromise” on the file.

[Edited by Angelo Di Mambro/Daniel Eck]

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