Florida's governor says he will "save our beef, but a lab-grown meat firm calls it an assault on liberty.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned lab-grown meat, saying he will “save our beef” from the “global elite” and its “authoritarian plans”.

“Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs,” Mr DeSantis said in a statement.

The first-in-the-nation law prohibits anyone from selling or distributing lab-grown meat in Florida.

Similar efforts are under way in Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee.

Lab-grown or “cultivated” meat was first cleared for consumption in the US in 2022.

The process of making cultivated meat involves extracting cells from an animal, which are then fed with nutrients such as proteins, sugars and fats. The end product is genetically indistinguishable from traditionally produced meat.

Studies have suggested that eating cultivated meat can cut carbon emissions and water usage, and free up land for nature, compared to eating traditionally produced meat.

  • DarkThoughts
    19•6 months ago

    I mean the big criticism is that it’s just highly processed food at the end of the day and that the process of production is what is the issue.

    Not really? I honestly have not heard anyone argue like this against lab grown meat. The whole point of it is to have more ethical meat that also does not destroy our basis of life through emissions.

    • toomanypancakesEnglish
      -8•6 months ago

      There’s no ethical way to kill someone who’s done nothing to you and doesn’t want to die. There’s no such thing as ethical meat.

      Edit: I can’t read apparently

      • @[email protected]
        14•6 months ago

        I think that’s the point of lab grown meat. If you can harvest the stem cells of a living animal and use those to grow full sides of beef (I’m vastly oversimplifying the process), then no animals have been killed.

        Bonus, emissions may be lower depending when comparing typical animal emissions vs the facility that produces the LGM.

        • toomanypancakesEnglish
          10•6 months ago

          I apologize, it’s early. The term ethical meat just annoys me, and I didn’t thoroughly read what I was responding to. While I question the ethics around obtaining the stem cells in practice, I do agree lab grown meat is radically better than taking the flesh from animals.