The Institute for Justice has partnered with cell-based meat company Upside Foods to file a lawsuit challenging the ban.
The US state of Florida’s prohibition on meat cultivated in a lab from animal cells is now facing a legal challenge.
The Institute for Justice (IJ) – a non-profit, public interest law firm – has joined forces with cell-based meat company Upside Foods to file a lawsuit challenging the southern US state’s ban, which they describe as “economic protectionism.”
The lawsuit was filed today (13 August) in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida. It contends that Florida’s ban violates the US Constitution’s provisions that prohibit protectionist measures designed to favour in-state businesses at the expense of out-of-state competitors.
“By targeting cultivated meat, which is produced outside Florida, the law seeks to protect local meat producers from competition, undermining the principles of a national common market,” it stated.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation banning the sale of lab-grown meat in the state at the beginning of May.
He said the state was “fighting 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.”
He added that his administration would continue to support its “local farmers and ranchers” in an effort to “save our beef.”
The ban covers the manufacture, sale, or distribution of cultivated meat in the state and came into effect on 1st July.
In response to the ban, Paul Sherman, a senior attorney at the IJ, said: “If some Floridians don’t like the idea of eating cultivated chicken, there’s a simple solution: Don’t eat it.
“The government has no right to tell consumers who want to try cultivated meat that they’re not allowed to. This law is not about safety, it’s about stifling innovation and protecting entrenched interests at the expense of consumer choice.”
Uma Valeti, founder of California-based Upside Foods, added: “Anyone who wants to try cultivated meat should have the opportunity to do so. Our mission is to offer a delicious, safe, and ethical alternative to conventional meat, and we believe Floridians deserve the freedom to make their own food choices.
“Cultivated meat represents a significant advancement in food technology with the potential to improve supply chain resilience and we are committed to making it available to all.”
Upside’s lab-grown chicken was given approval by US regulators, the Food and Drug Administration, and the US Department of Agriculture in June 2023.
Florida is not the first state to seek to prohibit the sale of lab-grown meat in the US. In January, Alabama state senators introduced a similar bill. Last year, the state of Texas also passed a law requiring cultivated meat products to include front-of-pack messaging indicating they are “cell-cultured” or “lab-grown.”
Food Future contacted Governor DeSantis’s office for a response to the legal challenge, but we were referred back to the comments the governor made when the ban was announced in May.