Lab Grown Meat is Already Being Banned in Some States

(VitalNews.org) – Lab-grown meat hasn’t hit the shelves of grocery stores yet, but many states have taken the initiative to already ban the product.

Florida and Alabama have both banned the sale of cultivated meat and seafood, which is grown from animal cells. Iowa’s governor signed a bill that would prohibit schools from buying lab-grown meat and federal lawmakers are looking to restrict it as well.

Some cultivated meat companies have said that they will be looking into legal action. The United States approved the sale of lab-grown meat in June of last year as it let two California startups sell cultivated chicken. Good Meat and Upside Foods are the two companies that have been making cultivated chicken.

As of now, two high-end United States restaurants added chicken to their menus and a grocery store in Singapore is selling one of Good Meat’s products. Lawmakers in seven different states have introduced some sort of legislation that would ban cultivated meats.

Jon Tester, Senator of Montana, and Mike Rounds of South Dakota introduced bills that would prohibit the use of lab-grown meat in school lunch programs. There has been a lot of controversy over the subject and many state lawmakers are taking action fast.

Lab-grown meat and seafood have a very long way to go before it would hit shelves anywhere, especially because it’s very expensive to make. Essentially, these products are grown in steel tanks using cells from a living animal, a fertilized egg, or a storage bank. Then the cells are fed with a blend of water, fat, sugar, and vitamins. When they have grown to size, they are cut into cutlets or chicken nugget shapes.

“It’s a shame they are closing the door before we even get out of the gate,” says the head of global marketing for Good Meat, Tom Rossmeissl.

Alabama Senator Jack Williams spoke out against the lab-grown meat by saying, “Alabamians want to know what they are eating, and we have no idea what is in this stuff or how it will affect us.” He continued, “Meat comes from livestock raised by hardworking farmers and ranchers, not from a petri dish grown by scientists.”