Lab-grown meat isn’t on grocery store shelves yet, but Florida and Arizona have already banned it

Earlier this month, Florida and Arizona both banned the sale of cultured meat and seafood. Grown from animal cells. In Iowa, the governor signed a bill prohibiting schools from purchasing lab-grown meat. Federal lawmakers are also looking to restrict it.

It is unclear how far these efforts will go. Some cultivated meat companies say they are considering legal action, and some states — such as Tennessee — have halted proposed bans after lawmakers said they would restrict… Consumer choices.

Still, it's a disappointing end to a year that began with great optimism about the cultivated meat industry.

The United States agreed Lab-grown meat will be sold for the first time in June 2023, allowing two California startups, Good Meat and Upside Foods, to sell grown chicken. Two upscale American restaurants briefly added the products to their menus. Some cultured meat companies have begun expanding production. A Good Meat product has gone on sale in a grocery store in Singapore.

But it was not long until politicians began to curb this phenomenon. Lawmakers in seven states have introduced legislation that would ban cultured meat, according to Kim Terrell, associate director at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In the US Senate, Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana and Republican Mike Rounds of South Dakota introduced a bill in January that would ban the use of lab-grown meat in school lunch programs.

The backlash is not limited to the United States, as Italy banned the sale of lab-grown meat late last year. French lawmakers have also introduced a bill to ban it.

This decline is occurring even though lab-grown meat and seafood are far from reaching the market in a meaningful way because they are expensive to manufacture. Cultured products are grown in steel tanks using cells from a live animal, a fertilized egg, or a storage bank. The cells are fed with a special mixture of water, sugar, fats and vitamins. Once they grow, they are shaped into cutlets, nuggets, and other shapes.

Companies focused largely on expanding production to reduce costs and obtain government approval to sell their products. Now, they're also trying to figure out how to respond to the state ban. Upside Foods has launched a petition on Change.org, calling on supporters to “tell politicians to stop policing your plates”.

“It's unfortunate that they're closing the door before we're even out of the gate,” said Tom Rossmeisel, global head of marketing for Good Meat. He added that the company is studying its legal options.

Supporters of the ban say they want to protect farmers and consumers. They say cultured meat has only been around for about a decade, and they're concerned about its safety.

“Alabamians want to know what they're eating, and we have no idea what's in it or how it will affect us,” Republican state Sen. Jack Williams, the sponsor of the Alabama bill, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “Meat comes from cattle raised by hard-working farmers and ranchers, not from a petri dish grown by scientists.”

But those in the cultivated meat industry say their products must meet stringent government safety tests before they can be put on sale. they Emerging industry They say the company is not trying to replace meat, but is trying to discover ways to feed the world's growing need for protein.

The United States currently leads efforts to develop cultivated meat and seafood, with 45 companies in the field, but that may change, Rossmeisl said. In January, for example, an Israeli company received preliminary approval to sell the device The world's first steaks Made from farm-raised beef. China is also investing heavily in lab-grown meat.

“It should be astounding and troubling to Americans that we are putting barriers in the way of something that could be really important to our economy and food security,” he said.

Fine for looking, not for sale

State Sen. Jay Collins, a Republican who sponsored the Florida bill, noted that the legislation does not ban research, only the manufacture and sale of lab-grown meat. Collins said safety was his primary motivation, but he also wants to protect Florida agriculture.

“Let's not rush to replace something,” he said. “It's a billion-dollar industry. We feed a huge number of people across the country through the cattle, beef, pork, poultry and fish industries.

Rossmisle thinks so Meat industry The company is trying to avoid what happened to the dairy industry after the introduction of plant-based alternatives such as oat milk. Plant milk It represented 15% of milk sales in the United States last year; That's up from about 6% a decade ago, according to the USDA and the Good Food Institute, an advocacy group for plant-based and cultivated products.

Meat producers have supported the ban in Florida and Alabama. Leaders of those states' ranchers' associations — advocacy groups for ranchers — sided with conservatives when they signed the ban into law.

But the picture is more complex at the national level, where the meat industry does not support a ban on cultured products. Some meat producers, such as JBS Foods, are developing their own cultured meat.

“We don't support the approach of outright banning these products,” said Sigrid Johannes, director of government affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. “We are not afraid to compete with these products in the market.”

The Meat Institute — which represents JBS, Tyson and other major meat companies — sent a letter to Alabama lawmakers warning them that the state's ban is likely unconstitutional since federal law regulates meat processing and processing. Interstate commerce.

The founders of Wildtype, a San Francisco-based company that makes farmed salmon, traveled to Florida and Alabama to testify against the bills but were unable to influence the outcome. They hope someone will challenge the ban in court, but say it's not realistic for their small company to fight that battle.

“We are David and on the other side of the aisle there is a giant Goliath,” said Ari Elfenbein, co-founder of Wildtype.