# Artificial Meat, a Symbol of European Backwardness

1 Opinion December 31, 2020 Stern in the News ![Thomas Philippon Headshot](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/Thomas%20Philippon%20230%20x%20260.jpg?itok=mpcvI7hb) By Thomas Philippon >

*"Count on me so that in France the meat remains natural and never artificial",* declared our Minister of Agriculture in reaction to the announcement of the marketing of cultured meat *\[in vitro, editor's note\]* by a start-up from Singapore.

At a time when the regulation of Gafam seems to have sounded, European decision-makers deplore the American domination as much as Chinese on the digital one and wonder why we do not have a Google or a European Facebook. But to pose the problem in these terms is to pretend to want to run before having learned to walk.

Read the full [*Les Echos* article](https://www.lesechos.fr/idees-debats/cercle/opinion-la-viande-artificielle-un-symbole-du-retard-europeen-1277331).

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*Thomas Philippon is Max L. Heine Professor of Finance.*## More from Thomas Philippon

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