Many US states have proposed laws banning lab-grown meat

Facing bans in 7 states

Since the beginning of 2024, Republican lawmakers in at least seven US states have introduced laws banning the production, sale or distribution of lab-grown meat.

In the US, chicken was the first lab-grown animal protein product certified safe for consumption by the federal government last year. Currently this product is only available to diners at one Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco and one restaurant in Washington. The process of producing meat in the laboratory begins with isolating cells from animals such as pigs and chickens using methods such as biopsy. These cells will be 'farmed' and grown into large pieces of meat in a bioreactor, which provides a mixture of proteins, amino acids, minerals, sugars, salts and other nutrients.

However, lab-grown meat has become a controversial issue for politicians. Some conservative politicians such as Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, call lab-grown meat 'fake meat'. In March, Florida's legislative assembly sent a bill banning the production and sale of lab-grown meat in the state to Governor DeSantis' desk.

'Some people may want to eat insects with Bill Gates, but I don't,' Bud Hulsey, a congressman from Tennessee, said in a hearing at the state's legislative council, referring to cultured meat. In an unsafe laboratory.

Billionaire Bill Gates is one of the investors in startup Upside Foods, which was licensed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to produce and sell laboratory-grown chicken last year. Upside Foods was valued at more than $1 billion in a funding round in April 2022.

Congressman Bud Hulsey said he supports a bill banning lab-grown meat. His opinion is that new products should not be tested on humans without rigorous evaluation and testing.

US states are following the example of Italy, which has passed laws banning the production of lab-grown meat. However, the law could face legal challenges within the European Union (EU) because Italy has not complied with the EU's single market processes. This process allows member states and the European Commission (EC) to give their opinion on a bill that could hinder the European single market.

"Basically, some people want to kill the technology of growing animal protein in the lab in the bud," said Paul Shapiro, CEO of Better Meat, a California startup that specializes in producing alternative proteins.

Many other countries are taking this nascent industry seriously, he noted. In 2022, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced a five-year agricultural development plan that includes measures to promote lab-grown meat. In 2020, the Singapore Food Authority (SFA) licensed the sale of chicken meat produced in the laboratory of startup Eat Just (USA).

"National security officials are starting to wonder if the United States is allowing Asia to gain an upper hand in the future of food technology," said Shapiro.

Traditional agricultural industry afraid of innovation?

Just as in Italy, the US backlash against lab-grown meat is linked to political messaging and domestic protectionism. Cattle ranchers and farmers are strongly supporting a bill to ban this type of meat in US states.

Lab-grown meat also faces skepticism about how similar it is to conventional meat. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says that meats made from lab-grown cells cannot be considered identical to meat from traditionally raised animals, mainly because of differences in nutritional quality. .

Businesses that produce lab-grown meat argue that their products are licensed for consumption after undergoing strict supervision by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as the USDA.

Sean Edgett, chief legal officer at Upside Foods, criticized states' bill to ban lab-grown meat as 'short-sighted'. 'These bills have a clear motive to protect traditional agriculture that is important to the government,' Edgett said. He believes that traditional agriculture cannot meet the growing global demand for meat.

According to recent estimates by The Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for alternative proteins, the lab-grown meat industry has raised $896 million from investors in 2022, bringing the industry's total mobilized capital to $2.8 billion since 2016.

In 2022, Upside Foods raised $400 million from Temasek, Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, Baillie Gifford, SoftBank, billionaire Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and John Doerr, chairman of Capital Investments. Venture Kleiner Perkins.

In March, the Bezos Earth Fund, a philanthropic organization founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, pledged $60 million in funding for academic research and development of alternative proteins, including meats. imitations made from plants such as peas and soybeans.

'The traditional meat industry is afraid of innovation, so it seeks to lobby lawmakers to ban this innovation. This is similar to how Blockbuster, a video rental chain in the US, lobbied lawmakers to introduce laws banning online video streaming (for fear of the rise of Netflix)', Paul Shapiro, CEO of Better Meat, comments.

Samuel Daniel

Update 01 April 2024