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Lawmakers in US state capitals are seeking to stifle the development of tuna, pork and other “lab-grown” animal proteins, and are taking a stand against new food technology backed by investors such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
Republicans in at least seven states have introduced legislation since the beginning of the year to ban the sale or distribution of lab-grown meat, a form of edible protein grown from animal cells.
The first product — cultured chicken — received federal approval last year as safe for humans, and was only available to diners at a Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco and a Washington restaurant owned by chef José Andrés.
However, lab-grown meat has become a red meat issue for politicians. Some conservatives like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have spun cultured meat into attacks against the “woke” political agenda of liberals. Others linked it to concerns about vaccines.
“Some people might want to eat insects with Bill Gates, but not me,” Bud Hulsey, a Tennessee state representative, said at a subcommittee hearing last March on cultured meat legislation.
“I think the Nuremberg Code was all set up so that you can't do human trials with new products and new experiments without testing them and trying them and seeing what they can do,” he said in support of the cultured meat ban. “We just went through Covid with an experimental shot that had a lot more problems than anyone wanted to talk about.”
The Florida Legislature in March sent legislation banning the sale of lab-grown meat in the state to DeSantis, who said in February: “We're not going to make fake meat. This thing doesn't work.” A spokeswoman for the governor declined to comment on whether he would sign the bill.
The US state legislation follows Italy, which last year banned the production of lab-grown meat in a law introduced by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. However, the law may face legal challenges within the bloc as Italy has failed to comply with EU single market measures.
“Some people want to kill this baby in the cradle,” said Paul Shapiro, CEO of Better Meat, a California company that produces alternative proteins, adding that other countries are taking the emerging industry seriously. In 2022, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a five-year agricultural plan that includes promoting lab-grown meat.
“People in national security are now starting to ask: Are we going to let Asia win the future of food technology?” Shapiro said.
As was the case in Italy, the American backlash to cultured meat carries domestic political and protectionist messages. Ranchers and farmers have thrown their support behind state-grown meat bills. Iowa legislation that includes a partial ban on cultured meat is supported by the state's pork, corn and soybean industries.
Lab-grown meat has also faced questions about how similar it is to conventional meat. “Cell-based meat cannot be considered identical to the animal-source foods it aims to eventually replace, mainly due to differences in nutritional quality,” the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said last December.
Cultivated meat companies said they undergo careful scrutiny by the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture before the products can be eaten. The state's proposed legislative ban is “surprising and short-sighted,” said Sean Edgett, chief legal officer for cultivated meat company Upside Foods, one of two companies that last year won government approval to sell lab-grown chicken.
These bills “are very transparent regarding the motive, which is to protect the traditional industry that is important to the state. “No one disputes that,” Edgett said. “How they protect the existing industry is a choice for consumers.”
He added that with the increasing global demand for meat, traditional agriculture cannot meet the demand alone. “We've always thought of ourselves as an 'and'. It's not about stopping traditional [meat] – It's really about having alternatives out there.
The cultured meat sector raised $896 million from investors in 2022, bringing the industry's total to $2.8 billion since 2016, according to the latest estimate from the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for alternative proteins.
In 2022, Berkeley, California-based Upside Foods raised $400 million from Temasek, Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, Baillie Gifford, SoftBank, Bill Gates and John Doerr, chairman of Kleiner Perkins. This month, the Bezos Earth Fund, a charity launched by the Amazon founder, pledged $60 million for academic research and development for alternative proteins, which also includes artificial meat made from plants like peas and soybeans.
“You have a meat industry that is afraid of innovation and is seeking to pressure lawmakers to ban that innovation,” Shapiro said. “It would be similar to lawmakers lobbying Blockbuster to try to ban streaming video.”
