Posted on 03/18/2024 4:22:53 PM PDT by nickcarraway
"We're not going to have fake meat. Like that doesn't work," Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to keep lab-grown meat out of Florida.
Over the last several months, Florida legislators have been quietly working to ban — and criminalize — the production and sale of cell-cultivated meat across the state, via the introduction of two bills, HB 1071 and SB 1084. On February 6, the state's House of Representatives passed SB 1084, which now sits on DeSantis' desk awaiting a signature. And if his previous comments are any indication, he will be pulling out his pen soon.
"I know the Legislature is doing a bill to try to protect our meat," DeSantis said in February while visiting the South Florida State College Hardee Campus, according to CBS. "You need meat, OK. And we're going to have meat in Florida." DeSantis added, "We're not going to have fake meat. Like that doesn't work."
Cell-cultivated meat, to be clear, differs from traditional veggie burgers and meat alternatives like Impossible Burgers. As the Congressional Research Service (CRS) defines,
What Longtime Vegetarians Think About the Plant-Based Meat Boom Cell-cultivated meat "is developed in a lab, grown from a sample of animal cells that does not require the slaughter of animals." In other words, it's actually meat. The development of cell-cultivated meat, the CRS explained, happens in five steps: the biopsy of animal cells, cell banking, cell growth, harvesting, and food processing. It's an industry that has heavy oversight in the U.S. by both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
As the CRS noted, there are about 150 companies around the world involved in the cell-cultivated meat industry, 43 of which are based in the U.S. Of those 43, just two companies, Good Meat and Upside Food, have FDA approval in the U.S. While it's still a relatively small industry, it's one with major financial backing. According to the CRS, some $3 billion has been invested in its growth via private capital, and an additional $5 million has been issued via the National Science Foundation in research grants, along with an additional $12 million in grants by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Even still, all this funding and research isn't enough for some Florida lawmakers.
"As of today, the unknowns are so great," House bill sponsor Danny Alvarez, a Republican representative from Hillsborough County, shared during a meeting of the House Regulatory Reform & Economic Development Subcommittee, CBS reported. "There are no long-term studies."
If the "unknowns" feel a little too simple for you, it's probably because it is.
Florida state Rep. Tyler Sirois, the Republican who introduced a similar bill, HB 1071, told Politico that his major motivation is protecting the cattle industry. “Farming and cattle are incredibly important industries to Florida,” Sirois stated, adding, "So I think this is a very relevant discussion for our state to have.” He did make sure to slip in that he considers cell-cultivated meat an “affront to nature and creation.”
“I think it raises important ethical concerns about the limitations and boundaries we should place on this type of science,” Sirois added. “I think you could see a very slippery slope here leading to things like cloning, which are very troubling to me.”
Mother Nature may disagree on the "affront" part, at least according to Josh Tetrick, co-founder and chief executive of Eat Just, which operates Good Meat.
“Instead of all of that land and all of that water that’s used to feed all of these animals that are slaughtered, we can do it in a different way,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and chief executive of Eat Just, which owns Good Meat, shared with the Associated Press following its FDA approval.
Florida, however, isn't alone in its pursuit to block the production and sale of this type of meat. As Fast Company reported, Tennessee is considering a similar bill that would impose a $1 million fine for selling cultivated meat. Alabama also passed a bill to ban the sale and manufacturing of it, making it a Class C felony. This means that if you're caught selling cell-cultivated meat there, you could wind up in prison for up to 10 years. And, as Food Dive reported, Texas also implemented legislation around how cultivated meat can be labeled and marketed.
All this legislation won't kill the industry; it will just move it offshore. According to Fast Company, both South Korea and Israel have favorable laws toward cultivated meat, while the Netherlands (where the first cell-cultivated meat was developed in 2013) has pledged $65 million to the industry. China even named cultivated meat as part of its five-year plan for national food security, giving other nations the proverbial first — and likely biggest — bite out of an industry that's projected to own as much as 35% of the meat market by 2040.
If weirdos want to eat that crap and it’s clearly labeled I think it frees up more real meat for the rest of us.
“I’m not a vegetarian myself but I eat animals that are.”
—Groucho Marx
Stop them from putting the vaccine poison in food also , namely BILL GATES
There’s no way I want that stuff in my body. Hell no!
Interesting. I didn’t’t realize its was cultured from real beef.
In any event, I bought some fake beef hamburgers one time when it was on sale at my grocery store. Cooked one, took one bite, spit it out and threw the rest away. Yukky stuff.
Except they’ll ban our foods that cause too much water use and feed and use up land for grazing. Not to mention gas from cattle.
They never let us have “freedom”.
You’ll never know who’s in the Lab Meat , maybe one of the workers
Interesting. I didn’t’t realize its was cultured from real beef.
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Nothing like having the neighbors over and grillin’ some good beef tumor burgers.
“cell-cultivated meat” = immortal cells endlessly replicating = cancer cells ... period ... so, who’s gonna want to gobble down cancer?
GOOD!!
I like Desantis but this is a bullshit move to placate the state’s beef industry. Nothing more.
I like him too. I’d rather be real with auto and house insurance which is a huge issue. If democrats want to have a winning issue, they’d run on fixing insurance which is out of control in Florida. I hope democrats are too dumb to run on it.
Another gold star for Florida...
And is doing what a governor should, protect existing industry and the jobs that go with it. First, you have the cattlemen, and their employees, from cowboys to maintenance. Then you have supply chains, which include farmers for grain, truckers, and anything else that supports getting the cow to market. Don’t forget the auctions and their employees. Then it gets to the processors. From there, some go to restaurants (more employees), butchers, and supermarkets (lots more employees). Then ultimately, the consumer, whom, if like me, enjoy throwing a well marbled ribeye on the grill that tastes like ‘Merica after a nice paycheck from a job I’ve worked at for 40+ hours a week. So yes, you’re damned right he is “placating” the meat industry. My state likes it that way, which is why he was elected.
Was that false beef “beef”, or false beef veggie?
Stop referring to it as meat in any way. It is not a substitute. It is a totally different product.
Impossible Ground Beef. Funded by Bill Gates and a bunch of Chinese companies.
Gates wants to depopulate the world, Impossible Burgers will most assuredly help with that.
As they say, “You should drop dead in good health”.
True, but his faux concern about fake meat comes across as disingenuous.
Baloney.
How much are the democrats paying you to stir up trouble?
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