Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed into law a ban on the sale of lab-grown meat within the state.
According to Florida’s Senate Bill 1084, “cultivated meat” is defined as “any meat or food product produced from cultured animal cells.” SB 1084 creates the penalty of a second-degree misdemeanor for knowingly selling cultivated meat in Florida. It also prohibits the manufacturing, distributing, and holding of cultivated meat in Florida, except for research purposes.
DeSantis commented on the legislation, writing on X, “Global elites want to control our behavior and push a diet of petri dish meat and bugs on Americans. Florida is saying no. I was proud to sign SB 1084 to keep lab-grown meat out of Florida and prioritize our farmers and ranchers over the agenda of elites and the World Economic Forum.”
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has long championed traditionally-raised beef and chicken over lab-grown substitutes.
He told Texas Scorecard, “I commend Governor DeSantis for signing that bill. It’s something that hopefully will start a trend. Maybe we can possibly get that through the Texas Legislature, I’d certainly be in favor of that.”
“Why would you want to eat lab-grown fake meat when you can have the real thing? We have a plentiful supply. We have about 12 million head of cattle in Texas alone,” added Miller, saying it doesn’t pass cowboy logic.
“Lab-grown meat—the general public is really not interested in eating that,” said Miller. “We had a big push for Beyond Meat, the fake meat; that’s kind of lost its steam, and so I don’t think the public is going to be interested. So we might as well just move on and eat a good ribeye.”
State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) authored Senate Bill 664 which was signed into law last year and requires that cell-cultured products be prominently labeled as such so consumers know that the product is lab-grown or created. However, it does not go so far as to ban the sale of these products altogether.
Texas Scorecard reached out to Perry for comment on Florida’s new law and whether he intends to press for such a measure in Texas. He did not respond before publication.
