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  • Scottsdale Independent

    Fountain Hills senator makes change to meat-labeling bill

    By (),

    2024-04-27

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    PHOENIX - It will not be illegal in Arizona to call food products grown in a laboratory "meat,'' "poultry'' or "fish,'' but marketers will have to add a clear label specifying it's not from a live animal.

    A bill banning those terms on items sold in Arizona stores that was pushed by a Republican House member was watered down in the state Senate this week when Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, added an amendment that stripped out the prohibition on calling lab-grown proteins by their familiar names.

    "This bill originally started out as a bill which simply said that if meat is cultured in a lab, which is a new technology, that it couldn't be called meat,'' Kavanagh told fellow senators. He called that "kind of ridiculous.''

    The Fountain Hills Republican said he worked with the bill sponsor, Rep. Quang Nguyen, R-Prescott Valley, to turn what Kavanagh called a "kind of a protectionist bill'' into one that instead ensures consumers are fully aware of what they’re buying.

    "If you sell this, you have to make people know that they're not getting good old-fashioned off-the-hoof meat or fish or poultry or chicken or lamb or goat,'' Kavanagh said.

    The disclosure requirement is far different from the original bill which had protectionist aspects.

    Cattle growers pushed HB 2244, testifying that the emerging market for lab-grown protein products was a problem for the industry. And GOP House lawmakers agreed.

    "We want to protect our cattle and our ranches,'' Rep. Michael Carbone, R-Buckeye, said during a House hearing.

    But the measure also dabbled in the emerging markets for plant-based meat substitutes and the conundrum that marketers and consumers find themselves in when buying or selling those products.

    House members debated whether current labeling rules made sure people knew what they were buying. And plant-based "burgers'' got a cold shoulder from a Globe Republican who raises beef cattle.

    "What they find is these plant-based products, they’re not all what they appear to be,'' Rep. David Cook said. For proper nutrition, he said, you need meat "from a real steak, from a carcass.''

    Opposition to the measure in the House came from a lobbyist for the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that says it is focused "on making plant-based and cultivated meat delicious, affordable and accessible.''

    Lobbyist Drake Jamali told a House committee in January that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration already requires anything produced in a lab to be labeled a "cell cultured''            or "cell cultivated'' product. That's enough to inform shoppers that what they’re buying never came from a live animal, he said.

    Kavanagh said grocers and other food industry groups were also concerned about different labeling rules being enacted in Arizona. He said he worked with them as well as cattle growers and Nguyen to come up with the changes adopted by the Senate on Wednesday.

    Kavanagh said that, with his changes, “you can call it 'meat,' but you have to use an adjective such as cell cultured, lab-grown etc. And that has to be in prominent type and close proximity to the word 'meat.' ''

    A much broader bill that would have put in place an outright ban on the sale or production of any "cell-cultured animal product  for human or animal consumption'' appears dead for the year.

    Rep. David Marshall, R-Snowflake, called his measure "a matter of statewide concern necessary to protect public health.''

    But the verbiage of his HB 2121 also suggested another motive: protection of the state's cattle ranchers. In fact, his legislation would have allowed anyone whose business is "adversely affected'' by the sale of lab-grown meats to sue to stop the practice and be able to collect damages of up to $100,000.

    It passed the House with only support from majority Republicans in February but never got a hearing in the Senate. Marshall had vowed to make major changes to his proposal, but they never came.

    The bill amended by Kavanagh on Wednesday needs a formal Senate vote and then must return to the House for final approval before heading for Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs for her signature or veto.

    We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org .

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