Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on Thursday reluctantly agreed with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) move to ban lab-grown meat in his state.
“Pains me deeply to agree with Crash-and-Burn Ron, but I co-sign this,” Fetterman wrote in a social media post, commenting on a screenshot of an article headlined “DeSantis signs bill banning lab-grown meat.”
“As a member of @SenateAgDems and as some dude who would never serve that slop to my kids, I stand with our American ranchers and farmers,” Fetterman continued:
Pains me deeply to agree with Crash-and-Burn Ron, but I co-sign this.
As a member of @SenateAgDems and as some dude who would never serve that slop to my kids, I stand with our American ranchers and farmers. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/zZLYf8t5lI
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) May 2, 2024
The Hill on reported Thursday that DeSantis had signed a bill that banned lab-grown meat in Florida.
In a news release, DeSantis said his state 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. Our administration will continue to focus on investing in our local farmers and ranchers, and we will save our beef.”
Per The Hill, the bill makes it illegal for people to “manufacture for sale, sell, hold or offer for sale, or distribute” such meat in the state.
Senators have been working to keep lab-grown meat off of students’ lunch plates, UPI reported in February:
U.S. Sens. Jon Tester, R-Mont., and Mike Rounds R-S.D., have introduced the School Lunch Integrity Act, which would prohibit cultivated meat from being served in the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.
The bill (S. 3674) has been referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, where it is awaiting review. There is no companion bill in the House.
In 2021, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he thinks people in “rich countries” should be eating 100 percent synthetic beef to reduce carbon emissions from livestock.
During an interview with MIT Technology Review, Gates said, “For Africa and other poor countries, we’ll have to use animal genetics to dramatically raise the amount of beef per emissions for them.”
He later added, “I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time. Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand.”
