Lab-made meat? Florida legislation makes it a crime
Companies around world working on manufacture More than 3.5 billion pounds produced in 2022
Lab-grown meat.
It sounds like a plotline from a sci-fi movie about test-tube chicken fingers, but it’s a real thing.
Startup companies around the world are competing to develop technologies for producing chicken, beef, salmon and other options without the need to raise and slaughter animals. China has made the development of the industry a priority. In the United States, the Department of Agriculture has given initial blessings to two producers.
If Wisconsin were a country, it would be the fourthlargest producer of cheese in the world. Wisconsin produced more than 3.5 billion pounds of cheese in 2022 – a quarter of the nation’s total cheese production, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
That’s equivalent to about 8,700 Boeing 747 airliners, or 158 Eiffel Towers.
In 2022, Wisconsin led the nation in the production of specialty cheeses such as cheddar, Muenster, feta, Limburger, Parmesan, Romano and provolone.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel decided it’s a gouda time to look at Wisconsin’s cheese legacy.
How did Wisconsin become so lactose tolerant? Early European immigrants, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Swiss cheese was one of the first Old World cheeses produced in Wisconsin, made by, natch, Swiss immigrants. Italians produced mozzarella, provolone and Gorgonzola; the French-produced Camembert, brie and blue cheeses; the Germans made Muenster and Limburger; and the English brought cheddar.
Wisconsin farmers gravitated toward making cheese because it kept longer than milk and butter, especially given cold storage (winter doesn’t count) and transportation methods.
Now, a measure in Florida that would ban sales of laboratory-grown meat has gained widespread attention beyond state borders. The bill, which is advancing through the Florida Legislature, would make the sale or manufacture of lab-grown meat a misdemeanor with a fine of $1,000. It’s one of a half-dozen similar measures in Arizona, Tennessee, West Virginia and elsewhere.
Opponents of lab-grown meat include beef and poultry associations worried that laboratory-made hamburgers or chicken nuggets could cut into their business.
Supporters include environmentalists who say it would reduce animal cruelty and potentially help slow climate change. Meat and dairy together account for about 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations.
Other backers of the industry include advocates for space exploration, a subject particularly relevant to Florida, which is home to the Kennedy Space Center and the site of countless launches to the moon and beyond. Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX has its own outer space ambitions, has partnered with Israel-based Aleph Farms to research lab-grown meat on a Space X flight to the International Space Station that launched from Florida.
How’s this actually made?
Lab-grown meat, also called cultivated meat, is grown from cells that have been taken from an animal. The animals aren’t slaughtered.
Then water, salt and nutrients like amino acids, minerals and vitamins are added to the cells, which multiply and eventually become minced meat.
Is lab-grown meat available today?
It likely will be years before lab-grown meat is a staple on dinner plates in America, if it happens at all.
But big investors are trying to make that a reality. Billionaires including Bill Gates and Richard Branson have made investments. So has actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Startups have spent millions of dollars on devising products that both taste