Since cultivated meat’s entry into the U.S. market in June 2023, the product has sparked debate.
So much so that Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, who signed a law on July 1, said that cultivated meat “is designed to be a threat to agriculture as we know it and the state was “snuffing this out at the beginning.”
Now, the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit, public interest law firm, has partnered with Upside Foods, one of the leading cultivated meat companies, to challenge the Florida law, which bans the production, distribution and sale of cultivated meat products.
The institute also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in hopes of “showing other states that this kind of legislation is a waste of time and resources,” said Madeline Cohen, senior regulatory attorney at the Good Food Institute.
The lawsuit claims that the Sunshine State’s ban is unconstitutional because the new law targets cultivated meat, which is produced outside Florida. The lawsuit also argues that the state law only seeks to protect local meat producers from competition, undermining the principles of a national common market.
“If some Floridians don’t like the idea of eating cultivated chicken, there’s a simple solution: Don’t eat it,” said Paul Sherman, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice in a statement sent to Food Dive.
“The government has no right to tell consumers who want to try cultivated meat that they’re not allowed to,” said Sherman. “This law is not about safety; it’s about stifling innovation and protecting entrenched interests at the expense of consumer choice.”
Proponents of the Florida bill at the time said the legislation would protect cattle ranchers and farmers and prohibit an “elitist” class from promoting unnatural foods, according to DeSantis.
“Agriculture is the backbone of this country,” said Gizmo Angus, a local cattle farmer in Molino, Florida, in an interview with ABC News. “Our food source is the most important thing that we can do as farmers and producers.”
But opponents of the legislation argue that such bans are a distraction from the commercialization of cultivated meat products and discriminatory toward the industry.
“Politicians should be spending their time enacting laws that help their citizens, rather than needlessly restricting what they can eat,” said Cohen.
Suranjan Sen, an attorney for Institute for Justice, said in a statement that Sunshine State’s banning Upside Foods’s products is like if California were to prohibit the sale of orange juice sourced from Florida.
“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,” said Sen. “Florida cannot ban products that are lawful to sell throughout the rest of the country simply to protect in-state businesses from honest competition.”
Upside Foods and Good Meat, another cultivated meat company, received regulatory approval from both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration in July 2023.
But the industry has struggled with consumer education and producing the products at scale. Between limited access to capital and political roadblocks, such as the Florida law, the future of cultivated meat is very uncertain.
Both Upside Foods and Good Meat launched their products at restaurants in San Francisco and Washington D.C., though the establishments no longer serve the cultivated products.
Because of the high costs to produce mostly cultivated products, several companies have created hybrid products that include a mixture of cultivated animal cells and other plant-based proteins.
But, Cohen said, cultivated meat has the potential to help solve issues such as satisfying the rising global demand for meat, improving food security and climate change. “The question isn’t whether the industry will continue to grow, but who will be a part of it,” she said.
China, for example, has started to include cultivated meat in national agricultural frameworks. Some U.S. states such as Colorado, California and Iowa are conducting research and investments into alternative proteins, said Cohen. “Governments who would rather ban these products than invest in their future are going to be the ones that are ultimately left behind.”
However, this is not the first effort by Upside Foods to challenge such political roadblocks. Days before the Florida law was put into place, the company hosted a cultivated meat tasting in Miami. The Freedom of Food pop-up included chef Mika Leon serving cultivated chicken products in a variety of dishes.
“Despite Florida’s ban, events like this highlight the increasing interest in cultivated meat and its crucial role in shaping a more sustainable future of food,” said Upside Foods founder and CEO Uma Valeti in a statement.
“Anyone who wants to try cultivated meat should have the opportunity to do so,” Valeti said. “Our mission is to offer a delicious, safe, and ethical alternative to conventional meat, and we believe Floridians deserve the freedom to make their own food choices.”