Amidst the debate on the ethics of animal agriculture and factory farmed animal products, some have looked towards the solution of lab-grown meat in order to ethically grow meat and other animal products for human consumption. The practice of growing lab grown or cultured meat involves taking stem cells from a living donor animal, then growing those cells into a consumable meat product either in vitro or through some other means for multiplying the stem cells. Proponents argue that the practice should be encouraged, as it has the potential to cut down greenhouse gas emissions caused by traditional animal agriculture, reduce water consumption required to produce animal products, reduce the need for farming space, and poses an ethical solution to the issue of the lack of animal welfare in traditional factory farming operations. (See, “Lab grown meat: an emerging industry” UC Boulder, 2021, available at https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2021/10/20/lab-grown-meat-emerging-industry). However, this recent technological innovation has encountered some pushback in the American legal system, including measures by the states of Florida and Alabama. (See, “Alabama bans lab-grown meat, joining Florida among US states outlawing alternative proteins” USA Today, 2024, available at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/05/13/lab-grown-meat-ban-alabama/73678952007/). \
Florida was the first state to issue a ban on lab-grown meat, with Florida’s Governor signing SB 1084 in May 2024, which both defined the term “cultivated meat” and banned the manufacture, sale, and distribution of cultured meat in the state. (See, “SB 1084” FLSenate.gov, 2024, available at https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1084/BillText/er/PDF). In an official statement issued to explain the ban on lab-grown meat, Florida’s Governor argued that the ban is necessary to push 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” and encourage investment in Florida’s animal agriculture industry. See, “Governor DeSantis Signs Legislation to Keep Lab-Grown Meat Out of Florida” FLGov.com, 2024, available at https://www.flgov.com/2024/05/01/governor-desantis-signs-legislation-to-keep-lab-grown-meat-out-of-florida/). Meat production will likely remain a significant industry in the state of Florida, which ranked the 12th highest state in housing cattle for beef in 2022 and 20th in terms of dairy cows. (See, “Florida Cattle Facts” USDA.gov, 2022, available at https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Florida/Publications/Brochures/FL%20Cattle%20Broc%202022.pdf).
The state of Alabama was the next to take steps to ban lab-grown meat, with SB32 signed into law in May of 2024. The bill, which will go into effect in October, makes it unlawful to manufacture, sell, or distribute cultivated meat in Alabama, with violation a misdemeanor punishable by civil penalties up to $10,000. Notably, the bill also carves out an exception allowing government entities and institutions of higher education that have a formal agreement with the state to conduct research involving the production of cultivated meat. (See, “Bill Text: AL SB23” Legiscan.com, 2024, available at https://legiscan.com/AL/text/SB23/2024). This trend of banning lab-grown meat may spread into other states, even states across the political spectrum. For example, a democratic member of Congress also spoke out against lab-grown meat, and showed support for the American farming and ranching industries that he argued lab-grown meat threatens. (See, “John Fetterman has beef with no-kill meat” Vox.com, 2024, available at https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2024/5/8/24151435/john-fetterman-lab-grown-cultivated-meat-ron-desantis-florida-ban).
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) are the government organizations that have shared oversight of the development of processes to manufacture lab-grown meat since both agencies entered into a formal agreement in 2019. Despite the technological improvements that have occurred since then, some argue that the recent backlash against the sale of lab-grown meat in the United States is still premature, as there are currently no lab-grown meat products available for sale anywhere in the United States. However, in anticipation of further improvements in the manufacturing process in order to produce a larger scale of lab-grown meat and make it feasible to sell en masse, the FDA and USDA-FSIS are providing oversight to ensure these products will be safe to consume and appropriately labelled if and when they may enter the market. (See, “Human Food Made with Cultured Animal Cells” FDA.gov, 2023, available at https://www.fda.gov/food/food-ingredients-packaging/human-food-made-cultured-animal-cells).
This controversy is not unique to the United States, as there is worldwide skepticism towards the prospect of consuming lab-grown meat. One country known for its gastronomic heritage, Italy, has taken steps to ban the production, sale, or import of lab-grown meat in a bid to protect its traditional cuisine and heritage. (See, “Italy bans lab-grown meat in nod to farmers” BBC.com, 2023, available at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67448116). In fact, the only country in the world in which lab-grown meat can be purchased and consumed is Singapore, which approved lab-grown chicken for public sale in 2020. However, even in Singapore, lab-grown meat remains rare while traditional animal protein is far more widely available. (See, “Why Singapore is the only place in the world selling lab-grown meat” BBC.com, 2023, available at https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65784505).
Beyond the skepticism about the effects that lab-grown meat would have on human health and the traditional farming industry, there are also some who doubt that lab-grown meat would be environmentally friendly if scaled up to the level needed to oust traditional animal products from the market. For example, a 2023 study by the University of California, Davis found that the global warming potential of lab-grown meat is between 4 to 25 times greater than the average for beef made from cattle. (See, “Lab-Grown Meat’s Carbon Footprint Potentially Worse Than Retail Beef” UC Davis, 2023, available at https://www.ucdavis.edu/food/news/lab-grown-meat-carbon-footprint-worse-beef). While lab-grown meat producers are still developing the ability to be able to make products through the most efficient and streamlined process, the industrial farming industry has a massive head start and remains a significant consumer of land, fresh water, and other resources.
Until the technology to produce lab-grown meat improves and allows the products to be distributed and sold on a larger scale, states looking to protect their animal agriculture industries or send a message against technological development may have time to draft and implement bans of their own. In fact, a number of states have proposed bills to either ban the production and sale of lab-grown meat, or set forth special labelling guidelines to ensure consumers can distinguish it from traditional meat products. Arizona has proposed a bill that would make it illegal to intentionally misbrand or misrepresent lab-grown meat as a traditional meat product. (See, “HB 2244” AZ Legislature, 2024, available at https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/56leg/2R/bills/HB2244P.pdf). In addition, Texas enacted a similar labelling law in 2023. (See, “SB No. 664” Texas.gov, 2023, available at https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB00664F.pdf#navpanes=0). Tennessee is taking it a step further, following in the footsteps of Florida and Alabama by proposing a total ban on the sale or distribution of lab-grown meat in the state. (See, “HB 2860” Tennessee General Assembly, 2024, available at https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB2860).
It is evident that the jury is still deliberating over the viability of bringing lab-grown meat to the American dinner table. In 2023, two California-based companies producing lab-grown chicken were given approval by the USDA-FSIS to sell their products in the United States. (See, “Lab-Grown Meat Approved for Sale: What You Need to Know” Scientific American, 2023, available at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lab-grown-meat-approved-for-sale-what-you-need-to-know/). However, the recent statewide bans in Florida and Alabama, as well as public skepticism towards lab-grown meat products, have significantly stalled the process of bringing these products to restaurants and grocery stores. It may take several more years of development before these products, including lab-grown chicken, beef, pork, and seafood, may be freely purchased from American grocery stores, restaurants, and fast-food chains.