Florida's Lab-Grown Meat Ban: Protecting Jobs or Stifling Market Innovation?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
How should government officials and the agricultural industry respond to the growth of the lab-grown meat industry?
For Context: This week, Florida banned lab-grown meat. As the name suggests, lab-grown meat is cultivated from extracted animal cells supplied with proteins, sugars and fats.
From the Right: A writer in the Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias) commended Florida’s ban for “protecting an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people from destruction,” asserting that a widespread shift to lab-grown meat “will have far-reaching effects that will devastate entire communities that rely on cattle farming.” Citing the steel towns of the Midwest as evidence of what happens when a community loses its economic engine, the writer concluded, “By banning the sale of lab-grown meat in the Sunshine State, DeSantis is ensuring that the communities relying on the farming industry to survive will endure for generations. It’s a good policy, and more states should follow suit.”
From the Left: A writer in MSNBC (Left bias) argued, “DeSantis and GOP legislators have taken bold steps to address an issue that doesn’t really exist” since lab-grown meats are not yet common but have the potential to “make a positive difference when it comes to environmental impacts and animal welfare.” Outlining other paths government officials can take to address the potential market disruptions of lab-grown meat, the writer concluded, “For all the talk about the GOP and its free-market principles, this is the latest example of the party preferring government restrictions and prohibitions to consumer choice.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
DeSantis makes ‘cultivated’ lab-grown meats illegal in FloridaIt was a few months ago when Gov. Ron DeSantis first announced his support for preventing “cultivated” lab-grown meat from being made or sold in Florida. “You need meat, OK. And we’re going to have meat in Florida,” the Republican governor said, adding, “We’re not going to have fake meat. Like, that doesn’t work.”
He wasn’t talking about soy- or vegetable-based meat substitutes. Rather, as The Tampa Bay Times reported, cultivated meat “involves a process of taking a small number of cultured cells from animals and growing them in controlled...
From the Center
DeSantis signs bill banning lab-grown meatFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill banning lab-grown meat in his state Wednesday, in what he described as an effort to “save our beef.”
“Today, Florida is 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,” DeSantis said in a press release Wednesday. “Our administration will continue to focus on investing in our local farmers and ranchers, and we will save our beef.”
The bill, S.B. 1084, makes it “unlawful” for...
From the Right
Florida is right to ban lab-grown meatFlorida banned lab-grown meat this week in a decision that was derided by many commentators as a silly encroachment on the free market, but the Sunshine State’s policy is actually protecting an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people from destruction.
While not yet a widely available commercial product, lab-grown meat, which is grown from existing animal cells, is widely seen as the future of food production. Advocates of the product say it is no different from farm-grown meat and is necessary to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to...
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