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Bay Area ranchers call lab-grown meat a new threat as federal lawsuit calls Florida’s ban unconstitutional

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Published  August 16, 2024 4:59pm EDT
Florida
FOX 13 News

New lawsuit over lab-grown meat in Florida

A federal lawsuit argues keeping lab-grown meat out of Florida is unconstitutional. Others say real meat comes from real animals, and lab-grown meat is a threat to the agriculture industry.

TAMPA, Fla. - Would you eat meat grown from a laboratory? The people who make it say it's safe and nutritious, while others say real meat only comes from real animals. 

Some say lab-grown meat is a threat to Florida's economically important agricultural industry. Its makers call it cultivated meat, but it's not meat to Dale Carlton, whose family owns a ranch that straddles the border of Hardee and DeSoto counties. 

"We hesitate to really call it meat," said Carlton, who is also the president of the Florida Cattlemen's Association. "It's lab-grown protein." 

RELATED: DeSantis signs bill banning lab-grown meat in Florida

The Florida Cattlemen's Association is a group made up of more than 3,000 ranchers, and they've found an ally in Governor Ron DeSantis. 

"They want to do this stuff in the lab and put the people sitting here today out of business," the governor told a crowd in Wauchula back in April. "I'm not going to let that happen in the great State of Florida." 

The governor signed a bill banning the sale, manufacturing and distribution of cultivated meat in Florida. However, the makers of cultivated meat said it's not fair.

"To be clear, we're not looking to replace conventional meat, which will always have a place on our tables. We want to give consumers a choice," said Uma Valeti, the founder of Upside Foods, which makes a lab-created poultry product. 

READ: Chick-fil-A bringing back Banana Pudding Milkshake, not offered in 13 years

Cell cultivated meat is made by taking a small number of cultured cells from animals and growing them in controlled settings to make food. The U.S. approved the sale of cell cultivated meat last June.

Upside Foods filed a federal lawsuit arguing in part that, constitutionally, states don't have the power to wall themselves off. The Cultivated Meat facility is in California, but they found supporters recently at a rooftop party in Miami. 

"I think we should be able to eat what we choose to eat," said Skyler Myers, who attended the event. "I mean Florida is all about personal choice. Why can't we eat what we want to eat?"

Cultivated meat makers predict it will be adopted worldwide and the U.S. should be a leader, but Carlton said if it's not on the hoof, it's not meat. 

"What they're calling meat really doesn't line up," he said. 

Now, there may come a court fight over a new threat never seen before in generations of ranching in Florida.

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