USA: Florida Legislature continues to show no taste for cultivated meat
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — It’s called “cultivated meat” — protein not from an animal but grown in a lab using cells from livestock — and Florida is now inching closer to banning it.
A large agriculture bill that includes the restrictions cleared another committee in the House on Monday. If signed by the governor, the change would ban the manufacture, sale or distribution of “cultivated meat” in Florida, under threat of criminal and civil penalties.
“I’m calling it ‘cultivated protein,'” state Rep. Danny Alvarez, R-Riverview, said. “It’s not even cultivated meat because that would allude that there’s some sort of parity between real meat and what is being produced in a lab.”
Alvarez is sponsoring the legislation. It’s a fairly new science and budding industry that the Republican lawmaker fears could be potentially dangerous.
“Simply put, it’s safety,” he said. “There’s no long-term safety data on cultivated protein. We know that it can happen, and we know that it’s been approved by the USDA for human consumption. But after that, we don’t have any idea what it’ll do. So until then, we’re just gonna pump the brakes.”
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