Gov. DeSantis signs first-in-nation ban on sale of lab-grown meat

Gov. Ron DeSantis in Wauchula. Screenshot via Florida Channel.

Florida will soon be the only state in America where cultivated meat cannot be sold. But only two restaurants in America sell the lab-grown product now, and neither operates in the state.

At a press conference in Wauchula, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a legislative package (SB 1084) that includes a number of Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services priorities. Most controversially, that includes the meat ban and a preemption on local regulation of electric vehicle charging stations.

The Governor said the development of lab-made meat is a threat to agriculture on par with citrus greening.

“What we’re protecting here is the industry against acts of man, against an ideological agenda that wants to finger agriculture as the problem, that views things like raising cattle as destroying our climate,” DeSantis said while standing by a sign reading “Save Our Beef.”

Calling products “fake meat,” the Governor laid out the potential creation of protein in petri dishes as part of a broader conspiracy by elitists in Davos to enforce social credit scores and erase farming.

“One of the things that these folks want to do is they want to eliminate meat production in the United States — actually throughout the world,” DeSantis said.

The new law takes effect July 1.

The Governor also presented a $6 million check to Hardee County to assist with construction of an industrial site in the region.

“We really have an appreciation for what our rural communities are doing,” DeSantis said.

The cellular agriculture restriction became a heated fight in the Legislature this year. Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson called for the ban, and it ultimately was included in a broader package covering a number of his legislative priorities.

The legislation had the support of the Florida Cattlemen’s Association, which derided lab-made meat as an unknown and potentially unsafe substitute.

“This cultivated protein, we know it isn’t beef, we know it isn’t meat. Meat comes from an animal,” said Dusty Holley, the association’s Director of Field Services.

But numerous hedge fund investors and startup companies researching meat cultivation said an all-out ban will stifle research as the population grows at a rate that traditional agriculture cannot accommodate. With artificial means of growing vegetable and crop yields as standard practice, they argued the burgeoning industry should be seen not as a threat to those raising livestock, but as a needed partner.

A group of 38 biotech investors and hedge fund leaders sent a letter to lawmakers in March arguing that the only result of the ban will be to set research in Florida back.

“Passage of this legislation will have economic ramifications for Florida,” the letter reads. “Biotechnology and biomanufacturing are among the fastest-growing industries in the United States, with biomanufacturing leveraging biological systems to produce goods at a commercial scale, offering innovative solutions across various sectors including plastics, fuels, foods, and pharmaceuticals.”

Lawmakers over the course of Session did make some concessions, exempting pure scientific research into the process of creating meat in laboratories. That should allow Florida programs already in place at NASA and multiple state universities to continue. The products simply cannot be made available for commercial sale.

Only two restaurants, one in California and one in Washington, currently serve cultivated meat, with neither one serving artificial beef.

Of note, one of the leaders in researching cultivated beef is Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first world leader to consume the product. Supporters of cultivated meat say the ability to produce beef beyond ranching could be a matter of food security.

As Florida considered the ban this year, Chinese state media openly celebrated the possibility that American states could limit production as the Eastern superpower steps up investment.

But Simpson at the press conference in Wauchula suggested that stopping synthetic meat would improve food security in Florida.

“Who wants to have a biomass shipped to their house, put into the tank, rolling in the lab and then put it through a 3D printer to make it look like a steak that you want to eat?” Simpson said. “Well, we’re not going to do that in Florida, right? We’re not going to participate. And let me even go one step further — and how bad this is for Californians that are participating in this crap — is that Italy’s even banned this.”

The same legislation also generated discussion about leaving regulation of charging stations to the state. The new law preempts local governments from requiring a higher number of parking lot spaces to be reserved for electric vehicles. Instead, state regulations would be the only threshold imposed.