Nebraska governor: Cultivated meat is not welcome here

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen made it known that he does not want cultivated meat, commonly known as lab-grown meat, to be sold in the state.

On August 30, Pillen held a ceremony at Oak Barn Beef in West Point, Nebraska, where he announced three anti-cultivated meat initiatives.

The first of which was an executive order, which he signed at the farm, that would create strict guidelines regarding state agencies and contractors from obtaining cultivated meat.

Pillen also directed the Nebraska Department of Agriculture to initiate a rulemaking process to make sure that any lab-grown meat products sold in Nebraska stores be properly labeled and not marketed next to traditional meat products. A public hearing on related draft regulations has been scheduled for October 8.

Thirdly, Pillen announced that he would be working with the state legislature to draft legislation that ultimately would ban cultivated meat in Nebraska.

“Nebraska farmers and ranchers, like those here today, are committed to producing the best food products anywhere,” Pillen said. “We feed the world and we save the planet more effectively and more efficiently than anybody else, and I will defend those practices with my last breath.”

Pillen’s initiatives have the full support of NDA Director Sherry Vinton, who said, “Nebraska consumers want to know and deserve to know what they are purchasing is safe, wholesome and not a lab-grown product.”

Earlier legislation was proposed in Nebraska in 2019. Sen. Carol Blood introduced a bill that would make it unlawful to market alternative proteins such as plant-based proteins, insect-based protein or cultivated foods as “meat.” That legislation ultimately did not pass.

Other state laws concerning cultivated meat

So far, three states have enacted laws concerning cultivated meat, with two banning them outright. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 1 signed a bill to make it “unlawful for any person to manufacture, sell, hold or offer for sale, or distribute cultivated meat in this state.” That law took effect in July.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a similar bill six days later with that law to become effective October 1.

In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds in May signed legislation that prohibits lab-grown food from being labeled as meat.

“This legislation prohibits companies from exploiting the trust consumers have with our livestock producers and misleading consumers into buying products they don’t want. This is about transparency. It’s about the common-sense idea that a product labeled chicken, beef, or pork, should actually come from an animal,” Reynolds said.