On [August 23rd], the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), a Washington, D.C.-based association that represents the country’s biggest meat producers and food companies, and Memphis Meats, a San Francisco startup that’s racing to get lab-grown meat in stores, teamed up to appeal directly to President Trump to handle a long-simmering dispute.
At issue is which government agency should regulate this newer, fancier, lab-ier meat—the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) [or] the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ….
…
[The] groups from opposite sides of the fence co-signed a letter to the White House to settle the dispute. And that would make sense: both regulatory bodies are branches of the executive. Since thus far, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb haven’t been able to figure out who should regulate this alt-meat, maybe their boss can.“FDA should have oversight over pre-market safety evaluations for cell-based meat and poultry products,” the letter reads. “After pre-market safety has been established with FDA, USDA should regulate cell-based meat and poultry products, as it does with all other meat and poultry products, applying relevant findings from FDA’s safety evaluation to ensure products are safe, wholesome, and properly labeled.”
In other words, let each regulatory group do what they do best ….
Read full, original article: Meat producers and lab-grown protein companies finally set their beef aside
