Florida’s ban on 'lab-grown' meat is now being challenged in federal court

Upside Foods, one of only two companies in the country authorized to sell cultivated meat, is suing over Florida’s recently enacted ban of its product, which went into effect last month. The new law (SB 1084) makes it illegal to sell, manufacture, or distribute cultivated meat in Florida, with penalties including up to 60 days in jail and fines of up to $500.

The company, represented by the Institute of Justice, a public interest law firm, filed its lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee. It alleges that the ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition of protectionist measures favoring in-state businesses at the expense of out-of-state competitors. Upside Foods is based in Berkeley, California.

The listed defendants include Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and state attorneys from four of the biggest jurisdictions in Florida: Jack Campbell in the Second Judicial Circuit (including Tallahassee); Bruce Bartlett in the Sixth Judicial Circuit (Pinellas and Pasco counties); Andrew Bain in the Ninth Judicial Circuit (Orange and Osceola); and Katherine Fernandez Rundle in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit (Miami-Dade).

“The lawsuit is ridiculous,” replied Simpson in a written statement. “Lab-grown ‘meat’ is not proven to be safe enough for consumers and it is being pushed by a liberal agenda to shut down farms. Food security is a matter of national security, and our farmers are the first line of defense. As Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture, I will fight every day to protect a safe, affordable, and abundant food supply. States are the laboratory of democracy, and Florida has the right to not be a corporate guinea pig. Leave the Frankenmeat experiment to California.”
The lawsuit says that the ban violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution because “it is expressly preempted by federal law regulating meat and poultry products. SB 1084 separately violates the dormant aspect of the Commerce Clause, because it was enacted with the express purpose of insulating Florida agricultural businesses from innovative, out-of-state competition like Upside. This Court should thus declare SB 1084 unconstitutional and enjoin its operation.”

Lab-grown

Cultivated meat, sometimes called lab-grown meat, is genuine animal meat (including seafood and organ meats) produced by growing animal cells directly. This eliminates the need to raise animals for food. According to the Good Food Institute, cultivated meat is made of the same cell types that can be arranged in the same or similar structure as animal tissues, thus replicating the sensory and nutritional profiles of conventional meat.

“The bill that I’m going to sign today is going to say, basically, take your fake, lab-grown meat elsewhere. We’re not doing that in the state of Florida,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said when he signed the legislation on May 1. “This is not just being done willy-nilly. They want to do this stuff in a lab to be able to wipe the people sitting here out of business. We will not let that happen in the great state of Florida.”

Upside Foods and Good Meat are only two companies in the United States that have received approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to start producing their cell-based proteins. That approval took place in June 2023.

Since then, venture capital funding for those two companies and the cultivated meat industry has slowed. The industry received $922 million in 2022 but that dropped to $226 million in 2023, according to the Good Food Institute.

“For the same reason that California cannot ban orange juice made from oranges grown in Florida, Florida cannot ban Upside’s meat,” Institute for Justice attorney Suranjan Sen said in a written statement. “A major purpose for enacting the Constitution was to prevent exactly this kind of economic protectionism, ensuring that all Americans can benefit from a free and open national market. Florida cannot ban products that are lawful to sell throughout the rest of the country simply to protect in-state businesses from honest competition.”

Florida is the first state in the country to ban cultivated meat. Alabama will become the second when its ban goes into effect on Oct. 1.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: [email protected]. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.

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