TALLAHASSEE -- A maker of cultivated poultry meat is suing the state of Florida over the ban on lab-grown products signed by Governor DeSantis last May.
Upside Foods and the Institute for Justice, a libertarian legal nonprofit, claim that the Constitution guarantees a common market between states, and doesn't allow states to ban out-of-state products allowed by the feds.
When he signed the bill in May in Wauchula, Governor DeSantis declared that lab-grown meat was part of a plot by "elites in Davos" (Switzerland, home of the World Economic Forum) to blame farmers for climate change and justify a ban conventional meat products by pointing to lab meat as an alternative.
Dr. Uma Valeti, the founder of Upside, insists he's not looking to replace conventional meat, but give consumers a choice in the face of rising meat demand. He says listening to the debate this year in the Legislature was like listening to governing bodies from hundreds of years ago that tried to suppress up-and-coming innovations of the past.
The lawsuit names Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, Attorney General Ashley Moody and four state attorneys, in Clearwater, Orlando, Miami and Tallahassee. It's asking for an injunction so that UPSIDE may resume hosting tastings and other events in Florida.
Simpson calls the lawsuit "ridiculous" and says "lab-grown meat is not proven to be safe enough for consumers. Leave the Frankenmeat experiment to California," he adds.
But Upside and the IJ point to comments by Simpson, DeSantis and state lawmakers leading up to the bill's passage to argue that the issue wasn't safety, but the protection of Florida farmers from competition.
Paul Sherman, an IJ attorney, pointed out that DeSantis' argument could be reversed in blue states. "That would give a liberal state the power to ban conventional meat in favor of cultivated meat," according to Sherman, who says his group would oppose either type of ban.
If you don't like cultivated meat, Sherman says, the simple answer is, don't eat it.
Information from News Service of Florida was used in this story.
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