Iowa Third State to Create Legislation Regarding Lab-Grown Meat

Tue, 21 May 2024 14:15:35 GMT

In an effort to maintain trust with consumers and protect livestock producers, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds recently signed into law SF 2391 , a bill prohibiting the misbranding of certain food products, including lab-grown meat.

Beginning July 1, lab-grown meat and plant-based imitation meat and egg products will have to be labeled with words such as fake, lab-grown, meatless, imitation or vegan, if sold in Iowa stores. The labeling requirements also apply to meat alternatives made with insect protein.

Gov. Reynolds shared her response to signing SF 2391.

“This legislation prohibits companies from exploiting the trust consumers have with our livestock producers and misleading consumers into buying products they don’t want,” she says. “This is about transparency. It’s about the common-sense idea that a product labeled chicken, beef, or pork, should actually come from an animal.”

Rep. Heather Hora, R-Washington, sponsored the bill in the House. As a pork producer herself, she says the bill protects farmers’ checkoff dollars that are used to market meat and eggs.

According to an Iowa Public Radio (IPR) article, the law will require the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing to inspect food processing plants or grocery stores for compliance if they receive a credible complaint about food products being mislabeled as meat. The law also provides penalties for not following labeling rules.

Furthermore, the law prohibits school districts, community colleges and public universities in Iowa from purchasing lab-grown meat and any foods misbranded as meat or egg products. In addition, the law requires the state to request a federal waiver to prohibit the use of federal food assistance to buy imitation egg products.

While many praised the legislation, some Democrats said their issue was with the purchase of egg alternatives.

IPR reported Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, says he was proud to vote for the original version of the bill but had concerns with the final version.

“Truth in labeling is certainly something that I strongly believe in for consumer protection,” he says. “But I’m also concerned with consumer nutrition. And there are some people who can’t eat eggs because of allergies but still need the nutritive content that might be supplied by alternative products.”

That same day, Gov. Reynolds signed HF 2649 , a bill providing capital gains relief for farmers and ranchers selling certain classes of livestock. This was a bill to reinstate previous tax break exemptions that had ended in 2022.

“Our tax code should promote livestock production, which we know is often how beginning farmers get their start in agriculture,” says Rep. Derek Wulf, R-Hudson, who co-sponsored the bill. “We know that livestock production supports rural communities and drives our rural economic activity…We want to make sure that we don’t increase taxes on our livestock producers and farmers here in this state.”

Continued legislation against lab-grown meat

Iowa becomes the third state in the country to pass legislation regarding lab-grown meat. Florida and Alabama both passed laws banning the sale of the cell cultured alternative meat product in their states this month. Florida’s law was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 1, 2024, and Alabama’s Gov. Kay Ivey signed the Alabama Bill , which the prohibits “the manufacture, sale, or distribution of food products made from cultured animal cells,” on May 7.

Jack Hubbard, executive director of the Center for the Environment and Welfare, shares that consumers have several concerns in the matters of cell cultured meat.

“Policymakers nationwide are grappling with growing consumer concern regarding lab-grown meat’s use of immortalized cells, bioreactors, chemicals and the lack of long-term health studies,” Hubbard says. “I think a lot of this legislative activity is politicians and elected representatives voicing and acting on the concerns of constituents who are saying ‘what is this stuff and have we done our due diligence.’ And to be frank, there is a major yuck factor that a lot of people have when they actually learn about how this is made.”

Hubbard see additional states likely following suit in creating legislation.

“From a transparency perspective, it just seems like the right thing that consumers ought to have a right to know what they’re buying,” he says.

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North American Cattle Groups Advocates for Oversight of Lab-Grown Proteins

Florida Becomes First State to Ban the Sale of Lab-Grown Meat

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 16:26:14 GMT

The first bill banning lab-grown meat was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on May 1. According to SB 1084, the bill prohibits the manufacture for sale, sale, holding or offering for sale, or distribution of cultivated meat in the state.

In a press conference in Hardee County, which is one of the top five cattle-producing counties in the state, the Governor spoke about the importance of supporting rural economies and agriculture.

“We’re fighting back against an ideology that ultimately wants to eliminate meat production in the U.S. and around the globe,” DeSantis said. “In the state of Florida we’ve put down the marker very clearly; we stand with agriculture. We stand with the cattle ranchers. We stand with our farmers because we understand it’s important for the backbone of the state. It’s important for our culture. It’s important for our heritage so 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.”

Joining the Governor during the conference were Wilton Simpson, commissioner of agriculture; Dale Carlton, president-elect of the Florida Cattlemen’s Association; Pat Durden, president of the Florida Cattlemen’s Association; and Sen. Jay Collins who worked on the bill.

In his remarks, Simpson said that food security is national security.

“It doesn’t always rise to the height of national security, but think about if there were no groceries just for one week in the grocery store, you would have total chaos in this country, and if that’s not national security, I don’t know what it is,” he said. “We get up every day thinking how can we have the most safe, affordable, abundant food anywhere in the world, and Florida is going to do its share of growing that product. We work hard every day to give our farmers the tools they need to accomplish these things.”

Both cattlemen expressed appreciation for the Governor and the legislature for protecting Florida’s cattle industry by signing this bill.

There has been an ongoing debate across the country in regard to cultivated meat products. Currently, lab-grown meat is only approved to be sold in the U.S. and Singapore. Italy was the first country in the EU to ban lab-grown meat, a decision made in February 2024.