Florida’s ban on farmed meat is being challenged in federal court in a lawsuit filed yesterday. The case is being brought by meat company Upside Foods and the Institute of Justice (IJ), a nonprofit public interest law firm.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill May 1 making it illegal to sell meat grown in Florida. The law went into effect July 1. Alabama passed a similar law banning farmed meat that goes into effect Oct. 1.
The case brought by Upside Foods and IJ argues that the Florida ban is unconstitutional on three separate counts. First, they argue that the ban violates Supremacy clause which gives federal law preemption over state law in some cases. The lawsuit argues that Florida’s ban violates two different provisions of the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act.
Legal complaint also claims that the ban violates Trade clausewhich gives the U.S. Congress exclusive authority to regulate interstate commerce. The IJ argues that the Commerce Clause restricts states from enacting laws that unduly restrict interstate commerce, and that Florida’s ban in its current form is discriminatory.
“The Florida law has nothing to do with protecting health and safety,” IJ senior attorney Paul Sherman said at a news conference today. “It’s a clear example of economic protectionism.”
Sherman said Upside Foods and IJ will also seek a preliminary injunction that would allow the company to sell its cultured meat in Florida while the legal proceedings are still pending. The complaint says Upside planned to distribute its cultured chicken at Art Basel in Miami in early December 2024. The company protested the Florida ban by hosting a tasting of its chicken on June 27 in Miami, shortly before the ban went into effect.
Sherman said the Alabama ban is also “in our sights,” but the IJ targeted a Florida law that went into effect before the Alabama ban. “We hope to get a quick ruling [in Florida] “for a temporary injunction” and apply it as a precedent to challenge the ban in Alabama, he said.
The lawsuit was welcomed by the Good Food Institute (GFI), a nonprofit that supports plant-based meat companies and is serving as a consulting consultant on the case. “Consumers should decide what kind of meat they want to buy and feed their families — not politicians. This lawsuit seeks to protect those consumer rights, as well as the rights of companies to compete in a fair and open marketplace,” GFI Chief Regulatory Affairs Officer Laura Braden said in an emailed statement.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson praised a bill that would ban cultured meat to protect the state’s agriculture industry from novel ways of producing meat. “We must protect our incredible farmers and the integrity of American agriculture. Lab-grown meat is a shameful attempt to undermine our proud traditions and prosperity, and it is in direct conflict with authentic agriculture,” he said when the bill was signed into law.
But at a news conference, Upside Food CEO Uma Valeti argued that cultured meat should be seen as a complement, not a replacement, to conventional animal agriculture. He said watching the Florida Legislature pass a bill banning his chicken was “like watching an old boys club” of legislatures protecting an existing industry from novel technology.