Texas Sued Over Its Lab-Grown Meat Ban (texastribune.org)
- Reference: 0179086822
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/08/1511251/texas-sued-over-its-lab-grown-meat-ban
- Source link: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/03/texas-cultivated-meat-lab-grown-ban-lawsuit/
> Two cultivated meat companies have filed a lawsuit against officials in Texas [1]over the law that bans the sales of lab-grown meat in the state for two years. California-based companies UPSIDE Foods, which makes cultivated chicken, and Wildtype, which makes cultivated salmon are suing Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Health and Human Services, and Travis County, accusing them of government overreach.
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> "This law has nothing to do with protecting public health and safety and everything to do with protecting conventional agriculture from innovative out-of-state competition," said Paul Sherman, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that is representing UPSIDE Foods and Wildtype. "That is not a legitimate use of government power." In June, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 261, which bans the sale of lab-grown meat in Texas for two years. Lab-grown meat, also known as cell cultivated meat or cultured meat, is made from taking animal cells and growing them in an incubator or bioreactor until they form an edible product.
[1] https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/03/texas-cultivated-meat-lab-grown-ban-lawsuit/
Standing (Score:2)
I don't know that the producers have a case. I'm betting that state governments have every right to ban food products. I'm guessing that California already bans food products.
Re: (Score:2)
US has most food regulated by the national government. It has to do with interstate trade - the states cannot block x product from another state. Their argument will be that it is an excuse to block non-texan foods based on false statements about safety. They will use the federal approval to demonstrate that the food is safe. (Honestly I agree with them - the only currently marketable lab grown food is salmon and it is safer than regular salmon because of the absence of mercury)
State governments rarely
Re: (Score:2)
The ban is on lab grown meat, not lab grown meat from outside Texas.
If the companies were to relocate to Texas, their product would still be banned in Texas.
Re: (Score:2)
They're trying to misapply the interstate commerce clause to help their business. Wouldn't expect anything else really.
Re: (Score:2)
Meat is expensive. Production can't realistically expand to meet demand. It costs too much in terms of land and water for the United States to produce enough to bring down prices. Cultured meat should be able to (at least) supplement the market for affordable animal protein with a product that is better than your typical soy garbage.
Re: (Score:2)
The 'protect' cusine laws in Europe are about naming. That is you can make a sparkling wine anywhere=, you just cannot call it Champagne. (except certain grandfathered California vineyards for weird reasons).
The rest of the laws all claim to be food safety, which is not an issue here as the Federal government already declared the Wildtype Salmon to be safe (and it is the only lab grown food legal in the US).
As for you idea that food is made in the kitchen, not a factory, that is poorly defined personal ph
Protectionism (Score:1)
"This law has nothing to do with protecting public health and safety and everything to do with protecting conventional agriculture from innovative out-of-state competition," said Paul Sherman Seems that on a federal level, that's what the current government is all about. Foreign workers, tariffs on everything not explicitly local-produced, all exactly the same protectionism concept; I can't see how this could be considered different. No surprise here.
The law is a silly, symbolic, political statement (Score:2)
Lab grown meat is expensive and still very early in its development
It faces many serious technical problems
Even without laws, it's unlikely to succeed any time soon
It is a great idea, but way harder than the supporters believe
They're right (Score:3)
I don't know what the legal situation is with this but the claims made in this lawsuit are obviously completely correct. No one is being protected from anything with this ban. It's just protecting already existing industry by denying future innovation and is being supported by twits who thinks they need to ban something just because they don't like the sound of it.
Nothing new under the sun here (Score:4, Insightful)
When margarine first came onto the market, the dairy industry lobbied hard to make sure it looked disgusting by requiring it to be dyed pink, blue, or [1]anything other than yellow [atlasobscura.com]. Protectionism from innovation.
[1] https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/margarine-used-to-be-pink-and-more-colorful-tales-from-the-food-dye-industry
Standing? (Score:2)
While I think these bans are stupid, what standing do these companies have in these suits? Neither of them actually sell lab-grown meat in Texas (or anywhere else -- yet...)
Probably not overreach (Score:2)
Government protection of economic interests is part of its role in working for the common good. I think you'd have to show that there is corruption between the agricultural industry and political offices to establish that such favoritism violates the law. Simply exercising existing government authority to regulate industry hardly "overreach".
disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer. And an actual lawyer wouldn't weigh into this thread without adding a ton of disclaimers.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know the answer, but how did the first cells come about?
Re: (Score:2)
I'll take option 3: chicken naturally farmed on an actual farm. Option 1 is for vegetarians looking for substitutes for real meat and thinking others want a meat substitute. It does make sense once we start going on long, interplanetary voyages.
Re: (Score:2)
Possibly from a chicken. Possibly from an egg. They should be able to determine which in short order, given a sufficiently large research grant.
Re: (Score:2)
> and better than killing an animal.
Nature is red in tooth and claw. It looks like you really have your work cut out for you.
Re: (Score:2)
It might be, eventually. Not sure that's true today. It also probably costs more than from-animal meat. Maybe that will change in the future.