As a bill to ban cell-grown meat makes its way through the Florida legislature, science researchers are divided on potential consequences

Legislation in states including Arizona, Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia has emerged against cultivated meat in the last two months.

Now, a bill that would make the creation or sale of cultivated meat a second-degree misdemeanor is making its way through the Florida legislature.

[Razieh Farzad, the University of Florida’s] only expert in cellular agriculture according to the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences website, feels confident her academic freedom and the university’s support will protect her from the bills, she said.

“It’s not relevant to me — I’m not manufacturing anything for commercialization yet,” she said. “I’m not worried. I’m just doing research.”

…

Though Farzad remains confident her research will be safe from Tallahassee, Florida Sea Grant Program Director Sherry Larkin isn’t so sure.

The UF food resource and economics professor, who worked with Farzad on an informational flyer, thinks the technology holds great promise for food self-sufficiency, she said in an email.

“My concerns with this bill is that it doesn’t appear to define ‘meat,’ and sometimes refers to the more generic ‘protein,’” she said. “Also, the focus seems to be on food for human consumption, which is just one use of this technology.”

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