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Since cultured meat hit the U.S. market in June 2023, controversy has erupted over the product.
So Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the bill into law on July 1, said cultured meat was “designed to be a threat to agriculture as we know it” and that the state was “doing it from the start.”
The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm, has teamed up with Upside Foods, a leading cultured meat company, to challenge a Florida law that would ban the production, distribution, and sale of cultured meat products.
Madeline Cohen, senior regulatory attorney for the Good Food Institute, said the organization filed the injunction “to show other states that this type of legislation is a waste of time and resources.”
The lawsuit claims the Sunshine State ban is unconstitutional because the new law targets farmed meat produced outside Florida. The lawsuit also claims the state law only seeks to protect local meat producers from competition and undermines the principle of a national common market.
“If some Floridians don’t like the idea of eating farmed chicken, there’s a simple solution: Don’t eat it,” Paul Sherman, senior staff attorney at the Institute for Justice, said in a statement to Food Dive.
“The government has no right to tell consumers who want to try cultivated meat that they can’t,” Sherman said. “This law is not about safety. It’s about stifling innovation and protecting entrenched interests at the expense of consumer choice.”
According to DeSantis, supporters of the Florida bill at the time said it would protect livestock ranchers and farmers and prevent “elites” from promoting unnatural foods.
“Agriculture is the backbone of this country.” Local cattle farmer Gizmo Angus said: “Our food sources are the most important thing we can do as farmers and producers,” he told ABC News in Molino, Florida.
but Opponents of the bill argue that the ban is an act of obstruction. Commercialization of cultured meat products and discrimination against the industry.
“Politicians should spend their time enacting laws that help citizens rather than unnecessarily restricting what they can eat,” Cohen said.
Suranjan Sen, staff attorney for the Institute for Justice, said in a statement that the Sunshine State's ban on Upside Foods' products was like California banning the sale of orange juice from Florida.
“The primary purpose of the Constitution was to prevent this kind of economic protectionism and to ensure that all Americans can benefit from a free and open national market,” the senator said. “Florida cannot prohibit products that are legally sold in the rest of the country in order to protect its own businesses from honest competition.”
Two other cultured meat companies, Upside Foods and Good Meat, received regulatory approval from the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration in July 2023.
But the industry has struggled with consumer education and mass production. Between limited access to capital and political hurdles like Florida’s law, the future of cultured meat is highly uncertain.
Upside Foods and Good Meat both launched their products in restaurants in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., but those stores no longer serve the produce.
Because most grown products are expensive to produce, some companies have created hybrid products that mix grown animal cells with other plant-based proteins.
But Cohen said cultured meat has the potential to help meet the world’s growing demand for meat, improve food security and tackle climate change. “The question is not whether this industry will continue to grow, but who will be part of it,” she said.
China, for example, has begun incorporating cultured meat into its national agricultural system. Some US states, including Colorado, California, and Iowa Cohen said research and investment in alternative proteins is underway. “Governments that try to invest in the future rather than ban these products will ultimately be left behind.”
But this isn’t the first time Upside Foods has attempted to tackle these political obstacles. Just days before the Florida law went into effect, the company hosted a cultured meat tasting in Miami. The Freedom of Food pop-up featured chef Mika Leon serving up cultured chicken products in a variety of dishes.
“Despite Florida’s ban, events like this one demonstrate the growing interest in cultured meat and the important role it can play in shaping a more sustainable food future,” Upside Foods founder and CEO Uma Valetti said in a statement.
“Everyone who wants to try meat should have the opportunity to do so,” Valeti said. “Our mission is to provide a delicious, safe and ethical alternative to conventional meat, and we believe Floridians deserve the freedom to make their own food choices.”
