Florida bans lab-grown meatballs after a company that created the first cultivated meatball files a lawsuit against it
Constitutional Law
Company that produced first cultivated meatball sues Florida over ban on lab-grown meat
August 15, 2024, 3:47 pm CDT
Florida’s ban on lab-grown meat shields state agricultural interests from interstate competition in violation of the commerce clause, according to allegations in a lawsuit by a California company that produces the product. (Photo from Shutterstock)
Florida’s ban on lab-grown meat shields state agricultural interests from interstate competition in violation of the commerce clause, according to allegations in a lawsuit by a California company that produces the product.
The company, Upside Foods, also says the ban violates the supremacy clause because it is preempted by federal laws regulating meat and poultry products.
Upside Foods grows meat, poultry and seafood from animal cells in facilities regulated and inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Upside Foods filed the Aug. 12 suit in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
The suit challenges the bill known as Senate Bill 1084 that was signed into law by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made an announcement on May 1.
“Florida is fighting against the global elites’ plan to force the rest of the world to eat beef grown in a petri-dish or bugs in order to achieve their authoritarian objectives,” DeSantis stated in an NBC News report. “We will save our beef.”
Upside Foods is represented by the Institute for Justice, which posted information about the suit here and here.
Law360 and the Daytona Beach News-Journal have coverage.
Upside Foods produced the world’s first cultivated chicken and duck meat, as well as the world’s first cultivated meatball, according to the suit. The company began selling its cultivated products in the United States in 2023 after getting the go-ahead from regulators.
Upside Foods’ founder is Dr. Uma Valeti, a cardiologist and the company’s CEO. In the mid-1990s, he became interested in alternatives for conventional meat when he was running the student kitchen of his medical school. Valeti, after visiting a slaughterhouse and buying several hundred pounds of meat decided that there had to be a better solution. “But it wants the opportunity to distribute their product to willing consumers so that these consumers can decide whether Upside’s products are worth eating.” And Upside has a right to do so because SB 1084 is unconstitutional.”
Wilton Simpson, the Florida agriculture commissioner, commented on the suit in a statement published by the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
“Food security is a matter of national security, and our farmers are the first line of defense,” Simpson said in the statement. As Florida’s agriculture commissioner, I will fight to protect a safe and affordable food supply. States are the laboratories of democracy and Florida has a right not to be a corporate test guinea-pig. “Leave the ‘Frankenmeat” experiment to California.”
