Ron DeSantis Says Letting People Buy Cultivated Meat Is Like Forcing Them To Eat Bugs

Florida’s protectionist ban on the nascent industry sacrifices conservative principles in the name of a culture war that politicizes everything.

It is not yet clear whether the alternative protein products known variously as "lab-grown," "cell-cultivated," or "cultured" meat will deliver the environmental benefits touted by their boosters or when they will be appealing and cheap enough to be competitive with conventional poultry, beef, and pork. But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis already has made up his mind, deeming these products so repellent that selling them should be a crime.

When he signed the nation's first ban on cultivated meat last week, DeSantis said he was "fighting back against the global elite's plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals." That bizarre, Orwellian spin, which portrays legal restrictions on consumer choice as a blow against authoritarianism, illustrates how right-wing virtue signaling—in this case reinforced by protectionism—compromises conservative principles by turning even activities as mundane as a trip to the supermarket into a political issue.

The technology that revolts the governor, first developed in 2013, uses cell samples to grow meat in bioreactors, obviating the need to raise and slaughter animals. Worldwide, more than 150 companies are working on such products, but they have been approved for sale only in Singapore and the United States, where their distribution so far has been limited to chicken sold by restaurants in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

DeSantis nevertheless claims to think the threat posed by this nascent industry is grave enough to justify its criminalization. His reference to mandatory bug eating, bewildering on its face, goes to the meat of his complaint.

As DeSantis tells it, a "global elite" is conspiring to stop people from eating good, old-fashioned meat based on dubious environmental concerns, leaving consumers with icky alternatives that include insects as well as "fake meat." As evidence of that conspiracy, DeSantis cites a 2021 World Economic Forum article describing insects as "a credible and efficient alternative protein source," which he says reflects "the World Economic Forum's goal of forcing the world to eat lab-grown meat and insects."

The article says nothing about "forcing" anyone to do anything, and the World Economic Forum, as a private organization, has no power to do so. But for DeSantis, the association between progressive Davos jet-setters and alternative protein is enough to justify the prohibition of federally approved food products.

Although the Yale-educated, Harvard-trained lawyer's populist pose is hard to take seriously, he evidently thinks it will appeal to Republican voters gullible enough to accept his equation of coercion with freedom. DeSantis is also playing to entrenched economic interests, as reflected in his promise to protect "100% real Florida beef" produced by "local farmers and ranchers."

One of those ranchers is Dean Black, a Republican state legislator who represents a district north of Jacksonville. "Cultured meat is made by man," Black explained in defense of Florida's ban. "Real meat is made by God Himself."

Black conceded that "our astronauts may need" what he called "Frankenstein meat" one day, and "if you go to the moon, if you go to Mars, you should be allowed to get it there." But he added that "you sure as heck shouldn't be able to get it anywhere in this country," and "you won't hear a cattleman like me advocating for it."

The governor's reasoning is essentially the same as Black's: Because I do not like these products, no one should be allowed to buy them. That attitude is hard to square with DeSantis' description of Florida as "an oasis of freedom" with a "business-friendly environment."

Speaking against the cultivated-meat ban, Rep. Anna Eskamani (D–Orlando) defended "the free market," "personal choices," and "competition"; decried "protectionism" and "corporate capture"; and praised "disruptors" who drive innovation. "We should refrain from controlling markets and choosing winners and losers," she declared.

These are supposed to be Republican issues. But Republicans like DeSantis have lost sight of them, blinded by a culture war that politicizes everything.

© Copyright 2024 by Creators Syndicate Inc.

Comments

[Stuck in California]

Oh, good. More Florida stories. Because we've definitely not heard about Florida ad nauseum or anything. Including this one relatively inconsequential issue.

[AT]

When he signed the nation’s first ban on cultivated meat last week, DeSantis said he was “fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals.” That bizarre, Orwellian spin…

Meanwhile, in New York just yesterday…

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/06/dining/eating-cicadas.html

The Noisy Lobsters of the Tree!!!!!!

Like that scene in Hidalgo, where they insisted that it’s a “gift from above, not a plague.”

Eat the bugs, Viggo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-4_zpsi-_0

As for the WEF, who may well be the closest thing to an Injustice Society or the Masters of Evil or the Legion of Doom or the Dark Avengers we have in modern society….

I’m not saying that silly tinfoil notion that they have a Great Reset in mind, one in which they control everything, openly tell you that you’ll eat the bugs and own nothing and like it.

THEY ARE. THEY ARE FLAT OUT TELLING YOU IT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEQcyIGH_vQ

[mtrueman]

The first English people to arrive at America found the seas full of lobsters. They were shunned and used as fertilizer and fed only to prisoners. They were called "cockroaches of the sea," which was considered an insult back then. Today lobsters are a delicacy and served in the most exclusive restaurants. By the time the government gets round to force feeding Americans crickets, meal worms etc, Americans will have convinced themselves that insects are luxurious delicacies, just like they've managed to do with lobsters.

[ravenshrike]

Boil lobster for an hour and then come back and tell me it tastes good. Because that was the extent of how it was cooked back then. it wasn't until someone cooked it just enough and added butter and lemon juice that people started eating it because it tasted good.

[mtrueman]

Crickets with lemon juice and chili is the stereotypical street food of Oaxaca, Mexico. Oaxaca is quite a lovely city with a highly developed culture including food culture. There are restaurants all over Mexico specializing in the food of Oaxaca, including crickets. They are very similar to eating a crispy treat like potato chips. I don't understand the hysterical reaction at the prospect of government forcing Americans to eat insects. The price will certainly be more affordable than typical meats and with attractive packaging and advertising, Americans won't need to be forced.

Tuna fish also enjoys a similar history to lobster. Only 50 years ago any tuna caught was certainly destined for cat food, or thrown away once the catcher had his photo taken with the trophy. Today, after being popularized in the sushi restaurants of Tokyo, Yokohama and Saga, it's considered a delicacy.

For the working class there's tilapia. This fish has only recently been seen as fit for human consumption thanks to its suitability for use in aquaculture - fish farming. Until then it was shunned at the market place.

[ducksalad]

I'm calling bullshit on the second paragraph, young man. 50 years ago I was 12 years old, and there was definitely tuna fish being eaten back then. Even such wonderful delicacies as lime jello with chunks of tuna in it, fed to schoolchildren.

[mtrueman]

"fed to schoolchildren."

School children, cats, not much difference. Point is that tuna has enjoyed a gain in prestige over the years, similar to lobster.

[AT]

I don’t understand the hysterical reaction at the prospect of government forcing Americans to eat insects.

Gee I dunno, maybe it's the word "forcing."

[mtrueman]

"maybe it’s the word “forcing.”

Then don't use it. No point in working yourself into a tizzy over something that's not going to happen.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

Yes, it's an anti-freedom law. It's a stupid law. But it's stupid because it;s so inconsequential. If future politicians do decide everyone should eat bugs, this is just a law and easily replaced by a mandatory bug-eating law.

This law is just virtue signalling.

By the same token, this article is just virtue signalling. It makes this stupid inconsequential law look like a dangerous consequential law, and it is nothing of the sort.

[MasterThief]

I'm fine with labeling, safety, and testing regulations for lab grown meat but also reject this dumb law. That said, Desantis is on the right side of the issue and accurately describes the powers and interests at play. Sullum is being extremely obtuse or dishonest in denying it.

[mad.casual]

I’m fine with labeling, safety, and testing regulations for lab grown meat but also reject this dumb law.

As any 101-libertarian knows, you can’t make a law without a method to enforce it. That’s what this law does. It literally turns the authority and ability to enforce administrative policy for lab grown meat in the State of FL to the FLDOA. Not great, but it sure as hell beats the shit out of unelected bureaucracies creating their own policies and conducting their own show trials.

It’s not virtue signalling, it’s rather literally making sausage… which is also regulated with enforcement authority by the FL and Federal DOA. There are people who talked about Ron DeSantis as the reasonable alternative to Biden or Trump. This is the status quo. This is what Left-leaning adults vs. Right-leaning adults looks like. And once again, Trump won not because he’s a 12-D chess genius, but because he’s a modestly competent checkers player in a room full of petulant children who struggle to be one dimensional.

Now, the reaction that the law prevents you from starting a small business and serving cultured meat to the public but doesn’t stop you from creating your own cultured meat or sharing it gratis among friends while plenty of other products with actual markets that do exist, from weed to milk to beer and spirits to firearms, don’t even enjoy the same broad, private freedoms… that does invoke some question as to whether you’re actually mounting a meaningful opposition or just child vacuously screeching, “Oranges Man Bad!”

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

This law is just virtue signalling.

No, it cares with it criminal penalties.

[mad.casual]

Considering there is no market and the market that doesn't exist is being propped up by alleged environmental benefits that may not exist... yeah, a law against fraud that carries penalties for defrauding people would be a straight up virtue signal.

[sarcasmic]

Translation: I don't mind if the government takes away freedoms I don't want. If other people want those freedoms, well fuck 'em. Not my problem.

[Ghatanathoah]

It's inconsequential now, but unless DeSantis put an expiration date on it, it could be a problem in the future. What if ten or twenty years from now someone figures out how to make lab-grown meat that's as good as the real thing? I imagine there'd be quite a lot of demand for it now. Most people today are willing to accept that killing animals is a necessary evil in order to get a high-quality-protein meat diet. Once lab-grown meat is high-quality enough it will become an unnecessary evil, and I imagine a lot of people who were willing to eat animals before will want an alternative. This law deprives those of them living in Florida of their rights.

[NM Dave]

I'll never be tempted or even persuaded to try this garbage. But that's my choice. Why would I care of someone else wants to eat it? deSantis is just like the progressives he hates so much in that he wants to exercise control over the most mundane of personal decisions. This is as far from a conservative position as it gets, although Republicans are less and less conservative as time goes by.

[Jerry B.]

Strange that people who say they won’t eat GMO foods (and no one else should either) are all right with this ultra processed meat substitute.

[mad.casual]

Remember the sensationalist scare against pink slime?

Pepperidge farm remembers. At least the division responsible for making hamburger, hot dog, and slider buns anyway.

[TJJ2000]

Wrong way DeSantis. Try dis-arming the FDA in Florida instead.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

This. Bureaucrats feed off these laws.

[mad.casual]

Once again, it's weird how all these left-leaning causes manage to keep their motivations, intentions, methods, resources a secret from the libertarians at Reason by publishing them right on their websites:

https://www.whatiscultivatedmeat.com/society

Currently, the United States Department of Agriculture supports meat production through subsidies for crops grown to feed livestock. As times change, government subsidies are sometimes used to support emerging technologies (e.g., electric cars and solar power have seen some modest government subsidies). It is possible that in the future, the U.S. or other governments may subsidize cultivated meat production.

The U.S. National Sciences Foundation has provided research grant funding for cultivated meat research at UC Davis’ and the US Department of Energy has provided research funding to Tufts University.

Governments in countries besides the U.S. are already incentivizing cultivated meat production. For instance, the government of Singapore has provided both financial support for research and development of cultivated meat and tax breaks for Singaporean cultivated meat companies in the spirit of Singapore’s self-sufficiency goals. The New Zealand and Singapore governments have funded a multi-million dollar research grant on cultivated meat that will investigate nutrition, cell sourcing and plant protein-cell interactions. Additionally, the European Union research and innovation program Horizon 2020 provided €2.7 million in research funds to a Spanish cultivated meat startup, €2.5 million to an Icelandic cell culture media supplier, and €3 million to a cultivated meat startup in The Netherlands. In Belgium, €2.1-million in funding has been provided by a government agency to two universities developing cultivated meat.

Only time will tell how government support for cultivated meat might affect conventional meat production and its subsidies.

Once again, adults. in. charge.

[mad.casual]

plant protein-cell interactions

Along the same lines, why “plant protein”? Why not “foreign protein” or “exogenous protein”? Some, if not many of the most efficiently produced, energy dense, nutrient dense, broadly consumable, and cost-effective foods, for humans, on the planet are animal fats and proteins. Especially once you’ve moved past simply generating empty calories. And once it’s been reduced to cells n-generations deep, what does it matter if the protein is of animal or plant origin?

I mean, it could just be me that notes that there’s an insane pseudo-religious cohort that would, e.g., regard cows or pigs, but not humans or plants or crickets, as sacrosanct life forms back to their embryonic stage and outward to any cells derived from that point. An insane pseudo-scientific cohort that has a global reach and influence unparalleled by any Church and/or Caliphate.

But that’s probably just me, it’s probably just a typo, and the person who typed that up meant to say “xenoprotein” or didn’t know any better and, with their seeming lack of scientific background, just errantly injected their own biases.

[SRG2]

This is easy. DeSantis shouldn't have signed the bill because it's authoritarian garbage and Dean Black is a fuckwit and possible religious nutcase.

[Mickey Rat]

It is interesting how much Florida’s anti-cultured meat law vexes Reason’s writing staff compared to, say, the Separation of Powers constitutional crisis Biden’s repeated attempts to do student loan forgiveness by executive order despite the Supreme Court’s decisions to the contrary is instigating.

[sarcasmic]

Allowing is forcing? That's Jesse-level mendacity.

[Kungpowderfinger]

Reason finds yet another hill to die on.

Let me know when Charles Koch eats that shit.

[Social Justice is neither]

Eat shit and die Jacob. You didn't give a shit or actively cheered every society destroying scheme from progressive marxists but this is a bridge too far for you?

[Roberta]

It's commonly complained that if a certain option is allowed, it leads to other choices becoming practically unavailable — like cashiers or gas jockeys where self-service is allowed, or deposit bottles where no-return bottles are allowed — because not enough customers exist to sustain that market.

[Old Smokin' Egg]

Once again, we see that farmers' opposition to heavy-handed government regulation comes with an important caveat: "Unless, of course, it helps farmers."

We've seen this with the Renewable Fuel Standard. Farmers who hate burdensome regulation are 100% in favor of forcing people to burn ethanol; and the same people who'd loudly mock the notion of anthropogenic climate change in any other context are happy to cite it as a reason why we should be compelled to use corn-based fuel.

The opposition to lab-grown meat is just another example of this. DeSantis and the Florida legislature are once again pandering to the farm lobby, whose opposition to the regulatory state evaporates when that regulation puts more money in their pockets.

[AT]

and the same people who’d loudly mock the notion of anthropogenic climate change

Sorry, did you say "anthropogenic climate change"?

Is that what we're calling "existential horror caused by the evil sun monster, often induced by others" these days?

I can mock it louder if you'd like.

[mad.casual]

Yeah! Because farmers are the real evil behind ESG and the global environmental conspiracy.

I mean sure, we *know* that billionaires and regulators fly to meetings together in places like Davos and Kyoto to discuss how to create, implement, and enforce all of these policies even the ones that overtly hurt farmers and food production. And even people like George Carlin and Eisenhower pointed out decades ago that you don't even need such a formal conspiracy when the interests of regulators and scientists align.

And, sure, the farm bill that is supposed to help farmers is phenomenally disproportionately stuffed with free food giveaways to the urban poor and ESG subsidies as cooked up by the actual conspiracies and passively aligned interests we know about mentioned above. But the real nefarious actors behind it all are the people who, for three generations or more, haven't left their home town to fly anywhere, let alone leave the country, because they've been mowing down wheat, soybeans, or corn and carting it to market according to whatever the market demands.

[Well Adjusted Biden Guy]

Why would libertarians of all people care about eating lab grown meat? Aren’t you guys all about eating past due canned goods out of lead cans? I’m confused.

[Eeyore]

Rusty steel cans.

[mtrueman]

It's only a matter of time before the government forces Americans to eat insects. Consider the following:
70% of agricultural land is given over to livestock
80% of Amazon deforestation is due to raising cattle
1 kg chicken requires 2.5 kg feed
1 kg pork requires 5 kg feed
1 kg beef requires 10 kg feed
1 kg crickets requires 1.7 kg feed
40% water used goes to livestock
meal worm and beef have similar amounts of minerals, vitamins and protein by weight

DeSantis can wring his hands over the prospect of eating insects, but it won't change anything.

[GroundTruth]

A serious cautionary note to all of the folks who want to even consider eating bugs:

If you are allergic to shellfish of any sort (lobsters, shrimp, crabs, or also clams and mussels) be very careful about insects. I was officially advised by an allergist that if you’re allergic to one, you’re likely to be allergic to all invertebrates. Invertebrates have a slightly different muscle protein from vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish with backbones). That protein is (often or always, not sure) the allergen.

[ducksalad]

Yeah, but then we’d cut down the rest of the Amazon to grow limes and chilis to put on the crickets.

But in reality all these concerns are fake. We’re reaching peak human very quickly. In a couple hundred years there’ll be so few humans that we can (sustainably) eat just the wings off of chickens raised exclusively on ribeye steaks. Like 5000 kg of corn per wing.

[AT]

Yea, but consider what feed is. It’s largely otherwise useless byproducts of farming/ranching or unusable (for humans) plant material. Crop residue, grass, hay, clover, meal, and (wait for it…) insects.

We’re using all the parts of the buffalo. We harvest the wheat to make the flour for our buns, and the parts we can’t use get turned into feed for the livestock that becomes the burger we put inside it or the milk that becomes its cheese. We dress it with lettuce and tomato, and we toss the plant scraps to the pigs that become the bacon. We use the yeast residue from the beer we drink with our burger to feed the chickens and get either a fried egg on top of the burger or a side of wings.

You act like farming/ranching principles of maximized utility aren’t known and implemented. We have such an abundance of material available for feed, that we need not concern ourselves with the fact that cows require more than crickets. If anything, devoting it solely to crickets would likely result in wasted product. We’re not going to run out anytime soon. And so long as we’re not preening crybabies about the “rights” of livestock, we can further maximize it with long-perfected factory farming techniques.

Don’t be a luddite.

Also, consider the fact that if we intentionally sabotage our livestock production and its population and controlled reproduction starts to dwindle, we will become entirely dependent on those who CAN cultivate insects intended for food production. Which is, of course, why the WEF/Legion of Doom is so gung-ho about it. What early cultivators did (grow/provide the food, and therefore be at the top of the social hierarchy) – only the WEF/Thanos wants to make sure they’re the ONLY ones who can cultivate.

Because unless you plan on running around with a thin mesh net every time your stomach rumbles it’s a whole lot more reliable (and independence encouraging) to just grow crops/slaughter a large (preferably domesticated) animal whose meat can feed large numbers and be cured/dried/frozen for later use. (It’s why we all started out as hunter/gatherer societies before the aforementioned beginnings of social hierarchy.)

There is far more to the “eat the bugs” push than just feed and nutrients. “Eat the bugs” is ultimately about controlling everyone. But you know that (and so does Ron DeSantis). It’s why you use the word “force” in all your comments on the subject.

[mtrueman]

“Eat the bugs” is ultimately about controlling everyone. "

That's silly. Countries like the USSR were very concerned with controlling the population and they never resorted to switching the diet to insects. Insect diets save water and energy inputs. In times of dire, prolonged shortage of water it will become inevitable. Oaxaca, where the crickets are eaten in Mexico is a dry place. You would be much better off worrying about the integrity and reliability of our water supply and those who control it rather than government forcing you to eat insects, which aren't nearly as bad as you seem to believe they are.

[AT]

That’s silly. Countries like the USSR were very concerned with controlling the population and they never resorted to switching the diet to insects.

But they did control the population through iron-fisted control of food production.

You would be much better off worrying about the integrity and reliability of our water supply and those who control it

That is a concern, to be sure. But the answer isn't, "Well just assume the worst and eat the bugs."

Go for it if it makes you happy - but if you try to make people against their will, when there's absolutely no reason to but for a tyranny that's asserted control over normal food production, I can guarantee you you'll soon be eating lead instead.

[mtrueman]

"But they did control the population through iron-fisted control of food production. "

True enough, but they never forced people to eat insects. I don't see the US government doing that either. Unless there are severe environmental conditions that make it necessary. Extreme drought for example where insects require less water and energy inputs than more traditional livestock.

"But the answer isn’t, “Well just assume the worst and eat the bugs.”

Perhaps that will be the answer. If we truly assume the worst, a diet of insects could be a live saver. If you'd prefer to starve rather than change your diet, you will doubtless have company, but most will choose life.

"Go for it if it makes you happy"

It's more about efficiency than happiness. If times are tight, efficiency trumps other considerations like habit, taste etc. In times of plenty, I don't see anyone trying to force you to eat insects. Your concerns are silly, (insects are tasty and nutritious in any case) and I suggest they be directed to the integrity of our water supply which we tend to take for granted, and if access to water should ever fail, we might not even be able to raise insects in sufficient quantity.

[Dan S.]

Eating bugs, or selling insect protein for human consumption, should certainly not be illegal either.

[ducksalad]

Free range insects, or insects raised under appalling conditions in crowded cages?

[Think It Through]

DeSantis is dumb on this one.

But didn't we just have this story? Anything else happening?

[ducksalad]

Obviously if people want to buy and eat lab-grown meat they should be allowed to do so.

But DeSantis’ wild conspiracy theory is only moderately wild. I personally know people who very much want to see animal meat eventually banned by law, and who explicitly view promotion of substitute meat products as a step in what they call the “transition”. The part he’s wrong about is that these mandatory veganism advocates are also against eating insects, which are still animals. They want us eating plants, exclusively.

First they came for the cannibals, and I said nothing. Then they came for the primate eaters, and I said nothing.....

[Ghatanathoah]

I think it's time we admit that limited government is not, and never has been a conservative principle. Conservatives don't care about freedom or limited government at all, they just adopted that rhetoric because it was persuasive to the general public and could be used to block some government programs they opposed.

What are conservatives' real principles? What do they actually believe in? Based on the way conservatives like DeSantis govern, it simply seems to be that they are evil and want to oppress people. Not in order to achieve some greater good, they just value oppression for its own sake.

[TJJ2000]

Pretty sure that's exactly why we are getting sub-parties like the Tea-Party and MAGA that are swaying from the central party RINO'S.