State Representatives are working to ban lab-created grocery store meats

A bill in the Florida House of Representatives and the Senate is making its way through Tallahassee to ban “cultivated” meats.

House Bill 1071 Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Senate Bill 586 Cultivated Meat both address this lab-made alternative.

St. James City Farmer, Joanna Dansby, said cultivated meat is a “meat that is derived from the cells of animals, created in a laboratory and done without pasture space and the land that’s required to do large meat.”

The farm, Pine Shine, sells pasture-raised cow, chicken and hog products to customers in the Southwest Florida community. While she said she’d rather eat her farm’s meat, she also said that legislators should not have a say in what the community can and cannot eat.

“Well, I, I think I mentioned that, you know, when I think about legislating, decisions for people to make when it comes to their own health and food. I don’t know that that’s a necessity. I prefer educating. I think that perhaps the legislation is coming out of fear, which is fine, you know, the health of any constituent in the state of Florida is important,” said Dansby.

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If this ban on cultivated meat is passed, Senate Bill 586 would prohibit “the manufacture, sale, holding or offering for sale, or distribution of cultivated meat in this state,” according to the bill presented in January.

Farmer Joe’s Grocery Store in Cape Coral does not sell any cultivated meat on their shelves. Owner Lee Snyder said they did research when deciding what they would put on their shelves.

Snyder said, “When we started with this brief of our program, they took us on a tour in Kansas, and they explained to us the probiotic diet that the animals are fed, and that’s what makes the beef so good.”

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On the other side of the aisle, businesses who specialize in lab-grown meat would come to a halt if this bill passed.

Food Solutions Action sent us this statement via email responding to the bill:

“Cultivated meat was created by NASA in response to the problem, how we feed astronauts in space.  The world faces a new problem, how do we meet skyrocketing worldwide protein demand with land and water is a finite resource.  Cultivated meat is a way to meet this rising demand, complementing not replacing traditional meat.  This bill would criminalize an innovative industry that is vital for American leadership in the global protein race.  Florida sets a national example.  This bill will stifle innovation, hinder private research which funds 98% of this sector, create barriers for NASA and other researchers, and ensure that the government dictates what Floridians can put on their dinner table.  Florida has been a leader in technology and the biotechnology industry is a rising opportunity to bring jobs and economic growth to the Sunshine State.”

This bill has not yet moved in the State Senate since being introduced in January. If it is passed it will go into affect this July.