SEATTLE - After a newly enacted Florida law that bans the sale of lab-grown meat, a manufacturer has filed a lawsuit against the state arguing that the restrictions give an unconstitutional advantage to Florida farmers over out-of-state competitors.
In May, Florida became the first state to ban and criminalize the manufacture and sale of lab-grown meat. Gov. Ron DeSantis said that Florida was "fighting back against the global elite's plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals."
Last year, U.S. regulators signed off on the sale of what has been known as "cell-cultured" or "cell-cultivated" meat. There are more than 150 companies around the world trying to develop these type of meat alternatives for chicken, beef, pork and lamb.
But manufactures such as Upside Foods, the company behind the lawsuit, argues that the decision to ban lab-grown meat could put the resilience of Florida's supply chain at risk by hindering the state's ability to address the projected doubling of global protein demand by 2050.
"It's pretty clear to us that the governor and the government have been misinformed," said Uma Valeti, founder and CEO of Upside Foods. "And all we're asking for is a chance to have a direct conversation and say, 'this is proven science, this is proven safety.," Valeti said at a tasting party in Miami in late June before the ban went into effect.
The state of Alabama also joined Florida by banning the sale of cultivated meat and seafood, while other states and federal lawmakers in Arizona and Tennessee are also looking to place restrictions on it, arguing the product could hurt farmers and pose a safety risk to the public. Alabama's ban on lab-grown meat is set to take effect on Oct. 1.
When asked for comment on the lawsuit, a spokesperson for DeSantis pointed to statements he made in May when he signed the state's cultivated meat ban into law, flanked by cattle farmers. "We stand with agriculture, we stand with the cattle ranchers, we stand with our farmers because we understand it's important for the backbone of the state," DeSantis said.
State Sen. Jay Collins, a Republican who sponsored the Florida bill, noted the legislation doesn't ban research, just the manufacturing and sale of cultivated meat.
Currently, the U.S. uses over 1 billion acres of land for agriculture, or just over half of total land, the majority of which is used for grazing cattle.
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