Florida bans lab-grown meat

[MercyA]

https://www.popsci.com/science/lab-grown-meat-ban/

This week, Florida officially became the first state to make good on threats to ban cultivated meat. On Tuesday, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law legislation making it illegal to manufacture, sell, hold, or distribute lab-grown meat within the state. Those who run afoul of the new law could be charged with a misdemeanor crime. Similar legislation is currently under discussion in Alabama, Arizona, and Tennessee. Violators of those bills, if they come to pass, could face jail time or fines.

“Florida 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,” DeSantis said during a press conference Wednesday. “We will save our beef.”

...Lawmakers opposed to cultivated meat, broadly, have attempted to connect the industry to a larger supposed culture war. DeSantis, for his part, has previously described lab-grown meat as “part of a whole ideological agenda” and claims it would threaten ranchers. Others, like Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Wilton Simpson, who supports the law, have called lab-grown meat a “disgraceful attempt to undermine our proud traditions and prosperity.” 

Yet another case of "you can't make this stuff up." Can you imagine how beneficial this could potentially be for the environment, for animal welfare, and for the economy?

What says the Hive?

Let's try to keep away from politics. 

[SHP]

I didn't know cattle ranching was a thing in Florida.

[Hyacinth]

Definitely not a fan of lab-grown “meat.”
Also, though, not a fan of banning. As a supposed conservative, DeSantis should be saying some version of “let the market decide.”  
 

[Pawz4me]

35 minutes ago, Hyacinth said:

Definitely not a fan of lab-grown “meat.”
Also, though, not a fan of banning. As a supposed conservative, DeSantis should be saying some version of “let the market decide.”  
 

Same.

It seems that "free market" is only a thing when the politician involved wants it to be.

[bolt.]

Is this even a thing yet? Lab grown 'meat'?

Can the 'global elite' even make this stuff yet, much less distribute it and force people to consume it?

Doesn't he need to at least be able to define the product before he can ban it? Like what if it's a lab grown 'meat substitute'? Or a 'savory protein supplement food' -- is it still banned?

[KungFuPanda]

He couldn’t just ban fake foods and promote fresh, healthy eating?  Nooooooo . . . he had to go full paranoid nut job on it.  It could be a net good if he accidentally bans all non-food foods. The twizzler lobby won’t like this. 
 

I don’t know if he’s a true believer or just doing what it takes to hold onto his job, but it must be exhausting pandering to the conspiracy theory lobby. 

[fairfarmhand]

1 hour ago, SHP said:

I didn't know cattle ranching was a thing in Florida.

Actually it is. There’s even a cattle breed called the Florida cracker. 
 

his banning this is dumb. It’s all about optics. 

Edited May 3 by fairfarmhand

[Kalmia]

I am no fan of lab grown meat, but banning  it isn't going to work, and in this case, it is definitely political grandstanding. (But just to note, it is not only conservatives who are concerned about corporate ownership of all food, many liberals are as well, including myself. ) I would rather see subsidies for organic regenerative agriculture with mixed animal and plant cropping that supports healthy soil. I also bristle when oil and gas companies, the folks directly responsible for the climate crisis (and knew their actions would cause a climate crisis back in the early 1900s) because they brought up billions of tons of already sequestered carbon aren't the objects of absolute bans. 

If anyone is interested, Michael Pollan in Food, Inc. 2 interviews the owner of one lab-grown (pieces of meat cultured from meat cells) meat start-up as well as discussing the "Impossible Burger". The "Impossible Burger" is not in any way a health food. It doesn't even seem to be food as I would define it from its ingredients: GMO yeast, GMO soy, seed and coconut oils, sugars, salt, cellulose (undigestible tree fiber), added vitamins. Better off to snack on some organic soybeans dipped in coconut oil with a vitamin-pill chaser. It exists because its inventor felt it was a better environmental choice than beef, however, health wise... looks like fast food to me. Lab grown meat is actual meat, but instead of being decentralized production as on farms of all sizes, from homestead to factory farm, it would be food that is wholly corporate owned. 

This is the link to Michael Pollan's latest documentary, Food, Inc 2: https://www.amazon.com/Food-Inc-Inside-Better-Future/dp/154170357X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1W551NLIKKAFK&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.z1iL1JoOEnhxu7yrx6ZowetwI6FQVl6GHVnf5PaMvbBfPOJp0scRCXP0L81j3IhChvRqUMgYSXwbP3hcGdK9p65Zol40mZFycScBXQC_2Z22VkfdpTTNWEz7AJvZzG9htWRTv0aB8il6jsc6UdRXBnRmnnEva1xHXLQOpVOhox3bTABqlFOfs2kUZ_a0gOQ77vopyXHw4e_ZEr4JeMiRhInCcijWGsUArvU4mWfkJMQ.x3yOmM4XrnrSyIgokszcuG_muIA6vL_b3n1flbd4x5Y&dib_tag=se&keywords=food+inc+2&qid=1714782104&sprefix=food+inc+2%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-1

Dr. Vandana Shiva writes a lot about corporate control of food and what that means for the people. https://grist.org/sustainable-food/dr-vandana-shiva-occupy-our-food-supply/

[kbutton]

35 minutes ago, Kalmia said:

I am no fan of lab grown meat, but banning  it isn't going to work, and in this case, it is definitely political grandstanding. (But just to note, it is not only conservatives who are concerned about corporate ownership of all food, many liberals are as well, including myself. ) I would rather see subsidies for organic regenerative agriculture with mixed animal and plant cropping that supports healthy soil. I also bristle when oil and gas companies, the folks directly responsible for the climate crisis (and knew their actions would cause a climate crisis back in the early 1900s) because they brought up billions of tons of already sequestered carbon aren't the objects of absolute bans. 

I agree.

I have reservations about lab grown meat, but I think it’s potentially a viable compliment to animal farming. I had not thought of the corporate aspect outright, but it’s concerning too.

I definitely think that the wrong entities are held responsible for a lot of environmental corners we’ve painted ourselves into but don’t think that’s going to change overnight without making life difficult/expensive for the wrong people also.

I think DeSantis had no mind/will of his own—he does whatever he thinks people on the far right want him to do.

[Corraleno]

I think lab-grown meat is the way of the future, and a hundred years from now people will likely look back at factory farming and be completely appalled. It's not "fake meat," it's real meat from cultured animal cells which is bioidentical to traditionally raised meat, just without all the antibiotics, hormones, diseases, and torture. I don't eat meat and still won't eat it even if no animals were harmed, but if my kids wanted me to serve it at home I would be fine with that and I would absolutely buy pet food made from cultured meat.

Taking choices away from consumers in order to protect the beef and poultry industries and pander to uneducated voters is just political grandstanding, and I doubt it would hold up in court. At least two cultured meat companies (Upside Foods and Good Meat) have gotten FDA approval so far, and within the next couple of years there will be many more options. There are no legally justifiable grounds for a US state to make it illegal for American companies to sell safe, FDA approved products when the same state allows the sale of tons of ultraprocessed crap that is way more "fake" than cultured meat.

[livetoread]

I don't like the idea of corporate food ownership, but I think the animal suffering in the food industry is a much, much greater downside to the status quo. I don't think it's worth all that suffering in order to keep meat decentralized.

[City Mouse]

The idea of lab grown meat sounds a little icky to me, but now I am more likely to try it sometime just to spite Florida’s governor.

[Corraleno]

BTW, lab-grown dairy, in the form of bio-identical whey protein, is already approved and on sale in various products in the US — including in Florida. The company is Perfect Day, and they have partnerships with major companies like Nestle, Mars, and Starbucks. The environmental impact of whey protein produced via "precision fermentation" is vastly lower, in terms of greenhouse gases, water and land use, and energy use, compared to dairy farming, with the bonus of no antibiotics, hormones, or diseases (like H5N1, fragments of which were found in 20-40% of pasteurized milk samples, and live virus was found in unpasteurized samples).

[Ausmumof3]

My concern with lab grown meat might be totally unfounded but is there extra risk to having cells that replicate without an associated immune system? I also believe there’s significant environmental issues related to the stuff they grow it in. I think it’s better to reduce or eliminate meat consumption than replace it with a fake version.

[Corraleno]

38 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

My concern with lab grown meat might be totally unfounded but is there extra risk to having cells that replicate without an associated immune system? I also believe there’s significant environmental issues related to the stuff they grow it in. I think it’s better to reduce or eliminate meat consumption than replace it with a fake version.

Animal cells can't replicate on their own, outside of the specifically designed laboratory conditions they are grown in, any more than cells from a living animal could replicate on their own if you took them out of the animal and set them in a dish on the counter. They're just cells, there's no immune system because there's no organism to "defend." The stem cells are grown in a mixture of glucose, amino acids, vitamins, salts, and other chemicals that are designed to replicate the animal's physiology as much as practicable — minus the antibiotics, hormones, pus, e coli, salmonella, etc., since it's grown under sterile conditions.

I totally agree that it's better to reduce or eliminate meat consumption, but the reality is that most people won't give it up, and many won't even reduce their consumption, no matter how compelling the science is on the health and environmental benefits (not to mention ethical issues). In fact, in some ways things are going in the opposite direction, due to all the YouTubers and influencers pushing a "Carnivore Diet" based on totally false assumptions about the "ancestral" human diet along with a lot of fabricated or misinterpreted "evidence" that plants will kill you and a diet of 90-100% meat is the healthiest. And as you can see from DeSantis's grandstanding, meat has now become a Culture War issue in the US; the right to eat lots of meat, carry semi-automatic rifles, and drive the biggest most gas-guzzling trucks are hills that a lot of people are willing to die on —quite literally.

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, Corraleno said:

Animal cells can't replicate on their own, outside of the specifically designed laboratory conditions they are grown in, any more than cells from a living animal could replicate on their own if you took them out of the animal and set them in a dish on the counter. They're just cells, there's no immune system because there's no organism to "defend." The stem cells are grown in a mixture of glucose, amino acids, vitamins, salts, and other chemicals that are designed to replicate the animal's physiology as much as practicable — minus the antibiotics, hormones, pus, e coli, salmonella, etc., since it's grown under sterile conditions.

I totally agree that it's better to reduce or eliminate meat consumption, but the reality is that most people won't give it up, and many won't even reduce their consumption, no matter how compelling the science is on the health and environmental benefits (not to mention ethical issues). In fact, in some ways things are going in the opposite direction, due to all the YouTubers and influencers pushing a "Carnivore Diet" based on totally false assumptions about the "ancestral" human diet along with a lot of fabricated or misinterpreted "evidence" that plants will kill you and a diet of 90-100% meat is the healthiest. And as you can see from DeSantis's grandstanding, meat has now become a Culture War issue in the US; the right to eat lots of meat, carry semi-automatic rifles, and drive the biggest most gas-guzzling trucks are hills that a lot of people are willing to die on —quite literally.

But lab grown meat is grown from biopsied cells from live animals so if they’re virus infected then the cells will be also?

The current medium is from foetal calf blood sourced from abattoirs. There is another medium that has been been developed but it isn’t great either.

Mostly I’m anti fake food though. Baby formula wasn’t better, most stuff we’ve done to food has made us sicker. And this process is even further from the original so much riskier for health.

Plus, I’ve been to plenty of farms and the number of native animals culled to make wheat farms work etc etc is crazy. You can’t really opt out of that. And a lot of ag land is not viable for plant based farming.  Too steep, wrong soil type etc. 

[Lady Florida.]

11 hours ago, SHP said:

I didn't know cattle ranching was a thing in Florida.

It's a pretty big thing actually.

11 hours ago, Hyacinth said:

Definitely not a fan of lab-grown “meat.”
Also, though, not a fan of banning. As a supposed conservative, DeSantis should be saying some version of “let the market decide.”  
 

There's a lot I could say about my governor but - no politics. I will say he cherry picks when the government can interfere and when it can't. 

[Carrie12345]

I don’t hold a firm stance on lab grown meat. I see pros and cons.

I AM sick of all the Save _____ Industry/Jobs. Cars killed the buggy industry. Fast fashion took out tailors and seamstresses. *I* used to process 35mm film! Local newspapers are dying. VCRs are dead.

It’s not like I want to see anyone suffer from transitions, but it really annoys me when a few specific sectors are heralded as untouchable while we shift so much overseas, exploit workers here, and other occupations evolve all over the place. It’s baloney.

[HomeAgain]

I don't hold a firm stance, either.  I think lab creation is different than fake replacements.  A lab-grown diamond is not a fake diamond.  It is identical to a mined one but without the bloodshed and slavery.  I hold my mind open to lab grown meat, something that can be made without vast resources involved.

 

DeSantis is a crackpot. The political posturing he identifies with and make a proud part of himself does nothing for Florida (and the rest of the country) in a positive way.

[Faith-manor]

5 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

But lab grown meat is grown from biopsied cells from live animals so if they’re virus infected then the cells will be also?

The current medium is from foetal calf blood sourced from abattoirs. There is another medium that has been been developed but it isn’t great either.

Mostly I’m anti fake food though. Baby formula wasn’t better, most stuff we’ve done to food has made us sicker. And this process is even further from the original so much riskier for health.

Plus, I’ve been to plenty of farms and the number of native animals culled to make wheat farms work etc etc is crazy. You can’t really opt out of that. And a lot of ag land is not viable for plant based farming.  Too steep, wrong soil type etc. 

This is where I am at on it. Most people are very unaware of the unintended consequences of veganism. And I have no problem with being vegan. Not at all. I am against the dishonesty that many hold that since they are against animal suffering, they will eat vegetables and fruits. The reality is that there is a TON of animal suffering involved in producing grains, vegetables, and fruits. It's just popular to ignore that. I live in an agricultural area, I know what is done to produce these products from shooting deer to keep them out of the fields, to trapping gophers, skunks, rabbits, all manner of wildlife and then killing them, to poisons put out to kill wildlife. In Orchards, mass killing of crows and crackles by shooting is normal, and is allowed without a federal permit despite their protected status. In order to replace the calories in humans that come from meat, more of this will have to occur in order to increase production/yield. Almonds require pollinators, insects that are very low in the US, so farmers in California buy/rent bee hives from China. Half of all the bees die during transportation to the US. Animals die in droves, animals suffer in droves for the grains, vegetables, and fruits that humans need to live. Might better methods be developed to decrease this suffering? Very possible. But it is really important that people understand how their food is produced, all of it. On average, 117 animals per hectare or 6 per acres die in plant based food production per season and that is a conservative estimate. More are killed each year in orchards. 

There has been a huge display of intellectual dishonesty about the plant based diet movement. And I am saying this as someone who has greatly decreased the amount of meat we consume, and increased grains and veggies for health reasons. I also just happen to live in an area that produces a stunning amount of food for humans, rub shoulders regularly with producers, and whose husband has had to take out a few rabbits and ground hogs in my life to prevent extraordinary damage to gardens that at the time were vital to offsetting our grocery bills with four growing kids at the same time Mark's employer did a corporate wide pay cut for all IT workers. I KNOW how many animals are killed or left to die of injuries in order to produce plant based food. Thankfully Mark is an excellent shot so at least our critters never knew what hit them and died instantly.

The food chain of mother nature is pretty cruel. Humans can and should and must do better. When you know better, you do better. But for you to live, with current methods, means animals will suffer, will have to die, in order for you to eat even if you are vegan, and this happens in numbers that are very uncomfortable for many folks to acknowledge. 

In terms of lab meat, we all know that allowing a corporate monopoly on something that is vital to life is a very very bad idea. So centralization to something like this is a major concern. BUT, and I think this is the most important point, it is beyond rare these days for American leadership to make decisions about issues like these that are actually on behalf of their constituents, that put their people's best interest at the heart of the matter. I am inclined to go eat some lab meat while raising my glass to the dingdong that made this decision!

 

[MercyA]

50 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

The reality is that there is a TON of animal suffering involved in producing grains, vegetables, and fruits. It's just popular to ignore that.

All actions have consequences. Some animals do die in the production of crops. However, if one wants to cause far less animal suffering, a vegan diet is the best way to do that. 

This is an excellent and comprehensive essay regarding the death of animals in agriculture: 

https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/no-vegans-dont-kill-more-animals-than-human-omnivores-a1975d1a497c

Relevant studies on both sides of the issue are discussed.

The author writes, "If the meat industry — which is the actual culprit in the expanding cropland footprint — no longer existed, the world would need far less cropland than it currently does, not more. The bulk of academic and scientific investigations into agricultural land use say meat production kills at least 10 times as many animals than crops produced for human consumption."

Edited May 4 by MercyA

[MercyA]

13 hours ago, Kalmia said:

 The "Impossible Burger" is not in any way a health food. It doesn't even seem to be food as I would define it from its ingredients: GMO yeast, GMO soy, seed and coconut oils, sugars, salt, cellulose (undigestible tree fiber), added vitamins.

The main ingredient in Impossible burgers is soy protein. Soy makes it possible for each patty to have *19 grams* of protein per serving, compared to 17 grams in the same amount of ground beef. Impossible burgers are not a "fake" food. They contain real protein from real plants. 

Also, I love to be able to get a delicious vegan sandwich when my family feels like Burger King. 🙂 

[HomeAgain]

I have to say I'm not a huge fan of Impossible meat, or what it's doing to the restaurant industry.  Not fast food - I couldn't care less about quality or whatnot.  But eat-in establishments used to have more variety in their vegetarian/vegan options that showcased and highlighted the flavors.  Now, most assume that vegans/vegetarians want a meat-like substitute instead of working with plant-based or non-meat options.  We went to WDW last month and I noticed that the type of vegetarian dishes had shrunk quite a bit into mostly 2: tofu and Impossible.  I'm good with the first (my go-to is a tofu bowl at Satul'i ) but I had no interest in getting faux-meat substitute that tells my brain one thing and my stomach another.  It's the same thing locally, so we only go out if I want to eat meat. Otherwise we make better vegetarian at home and call it a day.

[bolt.]

7 minutes ago, MercyA said:

The main ingredient in Impossible burgers is soy protein. Soy makes it possible for each patty to have *19 grams* of protein per serving, compared to 17 grams in the same amount of ground beef. Impossible burgers are not a "fake" food. They contain real protein from real plants. 

Also, I love to be able to get a delicious vegan sandwich when my family feels like Burger King. 🙂 

I agree: just because something is a soy patty doesn't mean it isn't food. It just means that it's a way of eating legumes, not a way of eating foods from other food groups.

And while we have to question: "Is it a *healthy* way of eating legumes?" We don't have to declare unfamiliar food formats to be some other non-food thing entirely. Questioning the implicit marketing of "It's not meat therefore it's better" by asking "Better in what ways?" and finding out that an Impossible Burger legume patty (like most 'burgers') is a pretty fatty food -- that's okay. It's definitely not a health food.

Sometimes some people want a fatty soy round with nice toppings that you can get at a fast food place and not feel deprived. Indulgent vegetarian food is allowed to exist.

Some people wouldn't want that in a million years -- and that's okay too.

[Corraleno]

1 hour ago, Faith-manor said:

... I am against the dishonesty that many hold that since they are against animal suffering, they will eat vegetables and fruits. The reality is that there is a TON of animal suffering involved in producing grains, vegetables, and fruits. It's just popular to ignore that.... On average, 117 animals per hectare or 6 per acres die in plant based food production per season and that is a conservative estimate. 

No vegan "ignores" the fact that animals die as a result of agricultural practices, but I don't know what the alternative is other than growing all one's own food or starving to death. At least a plant-based diet involves less death and suffering.

The fact is that a large percentage of the crops grown in the US are specifically grown as animal feed — 40% of corn and nearly 80% of soy grown in the US is fed to animals. Only 7% of US soy is used directly for tofu, tempeh, soy milk, and edamame. Animal agriculture is very inefficient — it takes 25 calories of feed to make 1 calorie of beef, or 9 calories of feed to make 1 calorie of chicken, not to mention the water and energy use. A vegan isn't eating 10-25 times more plants than a meat eater, so meat eaters are actually causing far more of the collateral damage in agriculture (rodents, birds, etc.) than vegans. If everyone in the US switched from meat to tofu, agricultural land use would go down, not up, so even discounting all the cows and chickens that wouldn't suffer and die, it would reduce death and suffering for all those other animals as well.

Obviously there's not a chance in hell that the whole population will ever switch from meat to tofu, and I do think that people should have the choice of consuming animal products if they prefer. But I think there needs to be a drastic overhaul of factory farming in this country, which will inevitably raise prices, and I think that is what will eventually cause people to reduce consumption of animal products. At some point cultured meat is likely to become cheaper than traditionally raised meat, and people will either switch to that or go plant-based.

 

[SHP]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

I have to say I'm not a huge fan of Impossible meat, or what it's doing to the restaurant industry.  Not fast food - I couldn't care less about quality or whatnot.  But eat-in establishments used to have more variety in their vegetarian/vegan options that showcased and highlighted the flavors.  Now, most assume that vegans/vegetarians want a meat-like substitute instead of working with plant-based or non-meat options.  We went to WDW last month and I noticed that the type of vegetarian dishes had shrunk quite a bit into mostly 2: tofu and Impossible.  I'm good with the first (my go-to is a tofu bowl at Satul'i ) but I had no interest in getting faux-meat substitute that tells my brain one thing and my stomach another.  It's the same thing locally, so we only go out if I want to eat meat. Otherwise we make better vegetarian at home and call it a day.

I am insanely jealous that at one time the restruants you went to had decent vegan offerings. I was limited to a salad and there was often annoyance about not adding the meat to the bowl of iceberg lettuce. I would have to drive at least 30 minutes for anything else. After my 30 minute drive, places that went beyond salad often just substituted tofu for the meat. My one time at a dedicated vegan restruant and the meal was chili. A bowl of beans with seasoning. A $25 dollar bowl of beans. 

We no longer bother with going out to eat, it's not worth it. 

[Indigo Blue]

13 minutes ago, SHP said:

I am insanely jealous that at one time the restruants you went to had decent vegan offerings. I was limited to a salad and there was often annoyance about not adding the meat to the bowl of iceberg lettuce. I would have to drive at least 30 minutes for anything else. After my 30 minute drive, places that went beyond salad often just substituted tofu for the meat. My one time at a dedicated vegan restruant and the meal was chili. A bowl of beans with seasoning. A $25 dollar bowl of beans. 

We no longer bother with going out to eat, it's not worth it. 

I tried tofu. Didn’t like it. When I go to Moe’s, I get a meager bowl of rice with scant spoon of beans and even less lettuce on top. They put increasingly less and less food in the bowl. It’s a ten dollar small cup of food, literally. Add in the sticky floor and dirty tables….yes, I’d rather stay home. 
 

Sorry to hijack. 
 

There’s a lot to think about with food production, for sure. We could and should do better. It’s not right that lab grown meat be banned. 

[Faith-manor]

I absolutely agree that plant based earing reduces animal suffering and killing. Of course it is a reduction. The reality of the messaging, at least in my neck of the woods, from the folks who came it from an animal cruelty perspective instead of a health or reduction perspective is that it ELIMINATES it. Many of the people who promote this are not at all informed about how their plants make it to their plates. If we are going to save agriculture and feed the planet, then we need to just start from the basic acceptance that humans are predators and things will die to feed us. That does not mean we should be tolerating factory animal food production. It should never have been a thing to begin with. It is disgusting that it is a still the primary source of protein, and the primary source of everything else is monoculture, pesticide and herbicide saturated plants.

But in terms of lab based meat, IF the actual issue at hand by the leadership involved in this decision was actually to make strides to secure food for humans, then the place to begin would have been Monsanto. Ban the use of it, the sale of it, the manufacture of it, the everything of Round Up and its cousins from that state. Take that to the supreme court. Bring up the cancer, the endocrine disruption, the decimation of vital insect species. I am not a fan of lab based meat from the standpoint of corporate monopoly. However, in the grand scheme of things, this is just a practical non starter compared to Monsanto, Monoculture, corn taken out of the food chain for use as ethanol, feeding cows gum and discarded practically not even food sh!t, twenty hens crammed into a single pen becoming so sickly that their lives last one year before Campbell's soup takes them for cream of crap soup, farm policy that concentrates farming in the hands of a few conglomerates and punishes family owned and operated small farms and dairies, and policies that continue to support farming in arid areas already suffering so badly from water insufficiency. Farming strawberries and avocados in Arizona. Almonds in California.

Ican't take DeSantis seriously even if this was the only crazy stunt of his on behalf of Floridians. It just is that dumb. Florida grows a ton of food and faces very real challenges and Floridians and Americans deserve food that is raised as ethically and health fully as possible. So his stupid ban does exactly diddly squat for food security. Just epic stupid. Tackle farm policy, ban Monsanto, make it a crime to raise chickens the Tyson way, beef cattle the factory farm way. As always, follow the money trail, the corporate money trail.

[Heartstrings]

Lab grown foods take us one step closer to the future Star Trek promised me, with a replicator in every kitchen.  That’s a move I can get behind, no matter how it starts.  
 

 

Edited May 4 by Heartstrings

[Faith-manor]

8 minutes ago, Heartstrings said:

Lab grown foods take us one step closer to the future Star Trek promised me, with a replicator in every kitchen.  That’s a move I can get behind, no matter how it starts.  
 

 

Well now, that goes without saying. Hear hear for never cooking again! 😁

I also want to know what happened to our future from 1986 when Bones gave the dialysis patient a pill and she grew a new kidney. I feel a little ripped off in 2024! 

[kbutton]

18 hours ago, Corraleno said:

BTW, lab-grown dairy, in the form of bio-identical whey protein, is already approved and on sale in various products in the US — including in Florida. The company is Perfect Day, and they have partnerships with major companies like Nestle, Mars, and Starbucks. The environmental impact of whey protein produced via "precision fermentation" is vastly lower, in terms of greenhouse gases, water and land use, and energy use, compared to dairy farming, with the bonus of no antibiotics, hormones, or diseases (like H5N1, fragments of which were found in 20-40% of pasteurized milk samples, and live virus was found in unpasteurized samples).

I would love to see more of this and try it out. I have kept an eye out but haven’t run into it.

 

[goldberry]

Why can't we start by banning all the crap in foods that the EU has already banned that we're still eating? Srsly, the only things that matter are what might hurt a company or an industry, never an individual. 

[ScoutTN]

I’ll stick with grass fed beef and lamb, and pastured pork and chicken from local family farms. 
 

Not a fan of big Ag. Nor of lab grown food. 

Edited May 5 by ScoutTN

[Faith-manor]

I feel like I should confess that when I very 1st saw the title of the thread, I thought it said Florida man not Florida bans, and I kind of feel like that isn't all that different. 😂

[KungFuPanda]

I know I should take a stance against fake foods, but there’s part of me that hopes we’re getting close to having replicators. I’m tired of deciding. I’m setting mine to Random and eating whatever appears on the plate. 

[kbutton]

On 5/4/2024 at 5:52 PM, goldberry said:

Why can't we start by banning all the crap in foods that the EU has already banned that we're still eating? Srsly, the only things that matter are what might hurt a company or an industry, never an individual. 

If we put more of those ingredients back into the supply chain as whole foods, that change could protect the supply chain on top of being healthier. I like my products when they aren’t junk, but if we have more supply issues because of some disaster, it would be nice to be able to find simple food easily, especially for those with dietary limitations.

[Ting Tang]

Anything made in a factory worries me.  Unless we go back to Little House times, I think food production will always be problematic in some regard.  So much of our food is killing us, though.  The way it is produced, packaged, etc.  I even think when you grow a garden near a highway, that is probably bad, too.  Everyone is getting cancer, so... yeah.  😞