Florida first. Alabama second. Who’s next? How many more state governments will ban the manufacture and sale of cultivated meat?

Let’s hope — for the sake of the free-market-loving, animal-based meat industry — it’s zero. An industry fighting a never-ending battle for consumer trust doesn’t need an association with mandates that fit within the definition of fascism.

Bad enough is the hypocrisy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rationalizing his state’s ban on cultivated meat as stopping the “global elite’s” “authoritarian goals” of “forcing” meat alternatives, when he’s forcibly suppressing a consumer choice. Effectively worse is his false political football: “We will save our beef.”

As though beef were a manatee, sea turtle, crocodile or any other of the dozens of Florida’s endangered species.

Does beef need saving? Does beef need the armored protection of an iron-fisted government?

Surely, this flies in the face of everything I’ve known about the independent beef industry, whose faithful extol the virtues of letting free-market forces do their thing — come hell or high water.

And from what would beef need protection? A would-be competitive market that barely exists? There are two — count ‘em, two —companies cleared by USDA to sell cultivated poultry products in the U.S. Even the more well-established plant-based protein market, in business for decades, is hardly a threat — punching in at maybe 1% of the North American meat market.

If anything, the shortcomings of alternative meats have offered the beef/meat industry a marketing opportunity, what with animal protein’s ample flavor, powerful nutritional profile, exceedingly simple ingredient list, and relative affordability.

Opportunity also exists in embracing the overall need for protein — one inclusive of plant-based and cultivated products — in a world with too many mouths to feed on animal protein only. Who better than an industry with the scale, institutional knowledge and operational prowess to lead a worthy effort and capitalize on them all?

The industry already has a tough time convincing consumers and regulatory bodies through various claims that it cares about sustainability, as a growing number of lawsuits and legal rulings indicate. It’s also already in a turf war with activists and alt-meat advocates in the courts that, in many cases, have deemed the industry a suppressor of free speech.

The meat industry doesn’t need an association with stifling consumer choice.

I have yet to try cultivated meat, and I do not feel compelled to try more plant-based products after being wholly underwhelmed by my earlier trials. However, like most consumers, I value variety and choice in foods. I believe it is a unique privilege and, frankly, a spoil of living off the fertile soil of the United States.

The bans of cultivated meats in Florida and Alabama are un-American. But beyond national ideals and principles, these bans are unnecessary and motivated by misguided fear.

State governments and politicians who weaponize that fear “to save beef” are doing no favors to a strong industry that is powered by independence, ingenuity and improvement, whose ability to feed the world remains a modern marvel.

Editor's note: This article ran as the Editorial in the June magazine issue of Meatingplace.

Save the Beef?

Join for free* to continue reading.