California Company Sues Florida Over Ban on Lab-Grown Meat

A nugget made from lab-grown chicken meat is seen during a media presentation in Singapore on Dec. 22, 2020. (Nicholas Yeo/Getty Images)

Food tech firm UPSIDE Foods Inc. is suing Florida officials over the state’s lab-grown meat ban, claiming the regulation violates the U.S. Constitution.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the law in May, prohibiting the sale of lab-grown meat in the state.

Any person involved in the manufacture, sale, or distribution of cultivated meat could be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor.

UPSIDE Foods, a startup from Berkeley, California, that produces cultivated meat—also known as lab-grown meat—filed a lawsuit against the ban in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on Monday.

“UPSIDE doesn’t want to force anyone to eat cultivated meat. But it does want the opportunity to distribute its product to willing consumers, so that those consumers can decide for themselves whether UPSIDE’s product is worth eating. And UPSIDE has a right to do so, because SB 1084 is unconstitutional,” the lawsuit said.

The company claimed SB 1084 violates the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says that federal laws take superiority over similar state laws.

The authority to regulate production and distribution of cultivated poultry products is vested with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to the lawsuit. Florida’s ban is therefore “expressly preempted by federal law and invalid under the Supremacy Clause,” the complaint states.

The USDA and FDA have approved UPSIDE products for interstate commerce, the company said in the complaint.

“As a result of the ban, UPSIDE is enduring ongoing harm in the form of lost revenue, missed business and promotional opportunities, reputational damage, and loss of consumer goodwill,” it said.

The company also alleged that SB 1084 violates the dormant commerce clause, which prohibits states from enacting laws that interfere with interstate commerce. The firm accused Florida of enacting the law to protect the interests of its cattle producers.

The Florida prohibition “did not cite concerns that cultivated meat is less healthy or safe than conventional meat,” the lawsuit said.

Background of Law

In a press release announcing his signing of the bill in May, DeSantis’s office said the new law would allow Florida to fight back against a global push by the World Economic Forum (WEF) for people to eat lab-grown meat and insects.

The WEF published an article in 2020 promoting lab-grown meat and in 2021 promoting insects as a “credible and efficient alternative protein source requiring fewer resources than conventional breeding.”

The WEF argued that insect protein can be used throughout the food chain and is a healthy option for people as well as being environmentally sustainable.

“Our administration will continue to focus on investing in our local farmers and ranchers, and we will save our beef,” DeSantis said.

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson praised the bill in a statement, saying the state must protect its farmers and the integrity of American agriculture.

“Lab-grown meat is a disgraceful attempt to undermine our proud traditions and prosperity, and is in direct opposition to authentic agriculture,” Simpson said.