Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been accused of ignoring Republican "basic values" after he signed a law banning lab-grown meat, also known as cultured meat, throughout his state this week.
Speaking to Newsweek, Didier Toubia, the CEO of Israel based lab-grown meat company Aleph Farms, warned the move could harm investment into Florida and contradicts the stated GOP commitment to the free market.
On Wednesday, DeSantis signed S.B. 1084, which made it illegal to "manufacture for sale, sell, hold or offer for sale, or distribute" lab-grown meat in the state of Florida. The governor claimed this would help "save our beef" and showed he was "fighting back against the global elite's plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs."
Lab-grown meat is produced from animal stem cells which are then put into a large tank, called a bioreactor, where they are encouraged to multiply. The end result is a new type of meat which doesn't require any animal to be slaughtered.
However, the process is controversial, with critics arguing it is unnatural and could end up damaging traditional farming, whilst supporters claim it will improve food security and is better for animal welfare. Efforts to ban lab-grown meat are also underway in Arizona, Alabama and Tennessee.
Toubia told Newsweek DeSantis's action was "a bit demagogic" and "more a political move rather than a real action to improve the state of the cattlemen in Florida."
He said the governor's move contradicts the traditional conservative emphasis on individual liberty, commenting: "Restricting entrepreneurial freedom contradicts the fundamental principle of a free democracy and I believe those bans are actually conflicting with the basic values of the Republican Party.
"We can't prevent entrepreneurs launching additional choices for the consumers. Giving consumers the right to choose which products to purchase or not I think is really anchored in the values of the Republican Party so that's really surprising."
Toubia also noted that currently "there's no cultivated meat actually for sale in the United States," though it was available at restaurants in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. during 2023 and he expects it to return shortly.
Toubia later clarified that one company, Upside Foods, does currently sell lab-grown meat in the U.S. It first sold to an American restaurant in July 2023 and now sells via event pop-ups.
During the interview, Toubia suggested Florida's ban on lab grown meat will result in lost investment opportunities that will now go to other states or countries.
He said: "If Florida is putting barriers to innovation in the state resources will be directed elsewhere...We believe innovation will happen and needs to be integrated beside conventional practices and will become complementary at some point in time.
"We can see it or decide not to see it but there is a global race for innovation today...if the U.S. is not investing and embracing innovation then other countries will take the lead such as China, which is investing heavily in cultivated meat.
"I think at least for this reason the U.S. should invest in those technologies and make sure it keeps a leadership position...when we see the U.S. taking these kind of actions to stop cultivated meat we can invest the same resources anywhere else. We can invest resources in the U.K., in the Middle East, in Asia or in China.
"The European Union is embracing cultivated meat and has invested in a few projects including in the Netherlands, in Germany, in the Nordic countries. Japan is currently promoting a regulatory framework for cultivated meat. China is investing in the space."
Newsweek contacted Governor DeSantis's office by email on Saturday outside of usual business hours. This article will be updated if they wish to comment.
Currently, Aleph Farms is focusing on introducing its cultured meat to Israel and Singapore, and in January, it received regulatory approval from the Israeli Health Ministry.
However, Toubia hopes the company will make a major investment in the U.S. in the coming years. After establishing itself in Israel and Singapore, he said "the next stage for us is to move into the U.S. and invest in larger production facilities which requires hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and will create hundreds of jobs in the states where we invest and we expect that to start in the next two to three years.
"We believe that cultivated meat will be key to increase the resilience of the food system in the U.S. We've seen how fragile the food system is in the U.S. during COVID."
In 2022, lab-grown meat received the backing of President Joe Biden as part of an executive order aimed at supporting biotechnology.
The order said the U.S. government is "looking to improve food security and drive agricultural innovation through new technologies...[including] foods made with cultured animal cells."
Update 5/7/24, 6:35 a.m: ET: Comment was added to clarify that a company does currently sell lab-grown meat in the U.S.
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James Bickerton is a Newsweek U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is covering U.S. politics and world ... Read more
