Upside Foods, a cultivated meat firm, sued Florida over its ban on lab-grown meat<\/a>, arguing that the state\u2019s legislation prohibiting the sale of cultivated meat is unconstitutional.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the ban into law in May, describing the legislation as a way of \u201cfighting back against the global elite\u2019s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In a lawsuit filed in federal court<\/a> on Monday, Upside Foods and the Institute of Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm, allege that Florida\u2019s lab-grown meat ban is about protecting the state\u2019s cattle industry \u2014 and that the law is unconstitutional. The complaint claims SB 1084 violates the Supremacy and Commerce clauses of the Constitution, as well as two federal laws regulating the inspection and distribution of meat and poultry products.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOur 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,\u201d Paul Sherman, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, said during a Tuesday press conference<\/a>. \u201cThe states simply do not have the power to wall themselves off from products that have been approved by the USDA and the FDA.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alternatives to conventional meat products, including plant-based and cultivated meat, have become a wedge issue<\/a> in the culture war between liberals and conservatives. As a result, companies that offer alternatives to animal-based products have found themselves targeted by<\/a> state-level laws that curtail<\/a> or outright prohibit<\/a> them from selling their products.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Upside and the Institute for Justice argue that Florida\u2019s ban on cultivated meat is intended to protect the state\u2019s cattle industry from out-of-state competition. The ban therefore violates the \u201cdormant aspect\u201d of the Commerce Clause, which prohibits state protectionism, Upside alleges. The complaint notes that during the signing event, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was flanked by cattle ranchers and \u201cspoke in front of a podium that featured a sign stating, \u2018SAVE OUR BEEF.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Florida\u2019s Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson \u2014 who is named as a defendant \u2014 called the lawsuit \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cLab-grown \u2018meat\u2019 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,\u201d Simpson said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cStates are the laboratory of democracy, and Florida has the right to not be a corporate guinea pig. Leave the Frankenmeat experiment to California.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Upside\u2019s complaint alleges that Florida\u2019s ban on lab-grown meat is about protectionism, not food safety, and points to DeSantis\u2019 press conference announcing the ban as proof.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Food and Drug Administration said Upside\u2019s products were safe to eat<\/a> in 2022, and the US Department of Agriculture<\/a> approved the sale of products from Upside and a competitor, Good Meat, the following year. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Upside argues that Florida\u2019s ban harms the firm\u2019s operations elsewhere in the country, too. Florida\u2019s ban on cultivated meat \u2014 the first in the nation \u2014 inspired copycat legislation across the country. Alabama banned lab-grown meat in May<\/a>, though that legislation won\u2019t go into effect until October. Legislators in Arizona, Kentucky, Iowa, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia have introduced similar bans. In the complaint, Upside and the Institute of Justice claim that the \u201cgrowing patchwork of conflicting state laws governing cultivated meat\u201d makes it more difficult for Upside to partner with national meat distributors, \u201cwho generally will not carry products they cannot lawfully sell in every state.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Upside had begun a partnership with a Miami-based chef before Florida\u2019s ban on lab-grown meat went into effect on July 1st, according to the complaint, which was filed in the Northern District of Florida. That chef, who is not named in the complaint, had begun making plans with Upside to host a tasting event at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival in Miami on February 20th, 2025. Upside also planned on distributing its products at Art Basel Miami in early December of this year and had \u201cidentified other chefs in Miami and Tallahassee\u201d that were interested in distributing its product, according to the complaint. Florida\u2019s ban now precludes these events from happening, since Upside\u2019s participation could lead to criminal penalties for itself and its potential business partners, the complaint claims.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Upside is asking the court to declare Florida\u2019s cultivated meat ban unconstitutional and to issue preliminary and permanent injunctions against the law. During the press conference, Sherman, the IJ attorney, said Upside would like the injunction to go into effect before Art Basel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIf consumers don\u2019t like the idea of cultivated meat, there\u2019s a simple solution,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have to eat it. But they can\u2019t make that decision for other consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n