Food firm claims Florida lab-grown meat ban unconstitutional

A food firm that produces lab-grown meat has sued Florida over its ban on the meat, claiming the action is unconstitutional.

The firm, Upside Foods, and the public interest law firm Institute of Justice claim the state's ban on lab-grown meat, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) earlier this year , is designed to protect the state's cattle farms and thus violates the commerce clause, according to the Verge .

The suit noted that at the law's signing event, DeSantis was joined by cattle ranchers and spoke in front of a sign that said, "SAVE OUR BEEF." The commerce clause bans protectionist state policies while giving Congress the power to regulate commerce.

At the event, DeSantis said he was "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."

"Our Constitution gives Congress the power to create and enforce a national common market so people can make decisions for themselves about what products they want to buy in the interstate market,” Paul Sherman, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, said Tuesday, according to the report. "The states simply do not have the power to wall themselves off from products that have been approved by the USDA and the FDA."

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson responded to the suit by calling it "ridiculous" and suggesting the "Frankenmeat experiment" is part of a "liberal agenda."

“Lab-grown ‘meat’ is not proven to be safe enough for consumers, and it is being pushed by a liberal agenda to shut down farms. Food security is a matter of national security, and our farmers are the first line of defense,” Simpson said. "States are the laboratory of democracy, and Florida has the right to not be a corporate guinea pig. Leave the Frankenmeat experiment to California."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Sherman defended the suit, saying the choice should be left to consumers.

“If consumers don’t like the idea of cultivated meat, there’s a simple solution,” Sherman said. “They don’t have to eat it. But they can’t make that decision for other consumers.”