Texas becomes seventh state to ban lab-grown meat

Texas is the fifth state this year and seventh overall to ban lab-grown meat after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation temporarily prohibiting the sale of cell-cultured protein.

Selling lab-grown meat, which is produced by growing cells acquired from living animals in a controlled environment, will be subject to civil and criminal penalties under the new law. It is set to go into effect in September and expires in two years.

“This ban is a massive win for Texas ranchers, producers, and consumers,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement following the bill’s passage. “Texans have a God-given right to know what’s on their plate, and for millions of Texans, it better come from a pasture, not a lab. It’s plain cowboy logic that we must safeguard our real, authentic meat industry from synthetic alternatives.”

Was that chicken cutlet grown in a lab? These states want you to know.

Consumers interested in sustainable foods that avoid the slaughter of animals are driving the growing cultured meat industry.

The Texas beef industry supported the bill. The state leads the nation in cattle, contributing almost 15% of U.S. beef production, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture.

Texas joins Indiana, Mississippi, Montana and Nebraska in enacting new laws this year; Alabama and Florida did so last year. In March, the Oklahoma House approved a similar bill that did not advance out of the Senate this session.

Texas followed Indiana’s lead in making its ban last for two years, which Indiana legislators said would allow more time for research. The time limit also may mean the law is less likely to draw legal challenges.

Upside Foods, one of the companies federally approved to sell cultivated meat, sued Florida shortly after the state passed the country’s first lab-grown meat ban. That lawsuit is pending.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave permission to two California-based companies to begin selling lab-produced chicken across the country. Their lab-grown chicken was briefly featured on the menu at two restaurants that same year.

Although cultivated meat isn’t sold in stores yet, some research suggests it could be better for the environment compared with traditional meat production.

But other research suggests lab-grown meat’s environmental impact could be higher than retail beef based on current production methods.

Stateline reporter Madyson Fitzgerald can be reached at [email protected].