Company that produced first cultivated meatball sues Florida over ban on lab-grown meat
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 on May 1.
“Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals,” DeSantis said in an announcement covered by NBC News. “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. He became interested in alternatives to conventional meat while running the student kitchen at his medical school in the mid-1990s. After taking a trip to a slaughterhouse to buy several hundred pounds of meat, Valeti decided that there must be a better way.
“Upside doesn’t want to force anyone to eat cultivated meat,” the suit says. “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.”
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 commissioner of agriculture, I will fight every day to protect a safe, affordable and abundant food supply. States are the laboratory of democracy, and Florida has the right to not be a corporate guinea pig. Leave the ‘Frankenmeat’ experiment to California.”
