DeSantis has no appetite for lab-grown meat

Gov. Ron DeSantis has endorsed legislation pending in the Legislature that would make it a criminal misdemeanor to manufacture, sell, or distribute “cultivated meat,” defined as “any meat or food product produced from cultured animal cells.”

Establishments that sell or serve these products also could lose their operating licenses.

These products offer an alternative to farm-raised livestock that avoids the environmental and ethical problems that ensue, but Florida agriculture interests are against them.

DeSantis, during a news conference, suggested he sees the lab-grown meat industry as another attempt to control Americans, similar to what he sees as happening with renewable energy.

“They really want to go after agriculture, how they do. They blame agriculture for global warming,” DeSantis said.

“You need meat, okay? We’re going to have meat in Florida. Like, we’re not going to have fake meat. Like, that doesn’t work,” he continued.

“But there’s a whole ideological agenda that’s coming after, I think, a lot of important parts of our society. And, like, Florida, we have a lot of agriculture. Florida also relies on reliable energy to power our electric grid, especially in the face of natural disasters. When Hurricane Ian came through, we got the lights back on because we had access to reliable energy. If we had to rely on windmills and solar panels, we would not have gotten the lights back on when we did.”