Texas has banned the sale of lab-grown meat for the next two years, despite the product not being sold in supermarkets or at the majority of restaurants.
Lab-grown meat, also known as cell-cultivated meat or cultured meat, is not widely sold or even consumed in Texas, but a law still went into effect Monday banning its sale for at least two years. Cell-cultivated meat is real animal meat made from animal cells. Advocates say it will create a more humane food source and reduce environmental and health impacts that come along with traditional animal meat.
While the news received a warm reception from cattle ranchers and others in the meat industry, some legal experts say the ban violates people’s constitutional rights by telling them what they can and cannot eat.
“The Texas ban on cultivated meat is a classic example of special interest legislation,” attorney Paul Sherman told The Dallas Morning News. “The law has nothing to do with public health and safety, and everything to do with protecting the powerful agriculture lobby from innovative out-of-state competition.”
Ranchers and families with their own farms worry that lab-grown meat, which is not sold on a large scale yet, could disrupt business if it were to become large-scale in the state.
“Ranchers across Texas work tirelessly to raise healthy cattle and produce high-quality beef,” Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association President Carl Ray Polk Jr. said in a statement. “Our association is grateful for those legislators who voted to support this legislation and understood the core of this bill, to protect our consumers, the beef industry and animal agriculture.”
Lab-grown meat is a relatively new industry, and its advocates say it could be a more ethical and sustainable food source. It isn’t easily accessible in Texas grocery stores and there is only one restaurant, Austin sushi spot, Otoko, where it is currently sold, according to The Texas Tribune.
There are only four companies with government permission to sell cultivated meat within the U.S.
While the ban in Texas bans sales of the meat product, it does not prohibit research or development into the budding industry.
The attorney, Sherman, who is also leading a lawsuit against a similar ban in Florida, says if the courts rule in their favor, the same arguments could be applied in Texas.
“We are hopeful that the courts will stand up for the right of consumers to choose for themselves what foods they want to eat,” Sherman said.
Other states to ban lab-grown meat include Florida, Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana and Nebraska, according to Stateline.
Texas followed Indiana in making the ban last for only two years, which state lawmakers say is enough time to conduct more research.
