Two cultivated meat companies have filed a lawsuit against the officials in Texas about the law that bans the sale of lab -made meat for two years in the state.
California -based companies make up Alta Foods, which make cultivated chicken and wild types, who make cultivated salmins, are against Attorney General Ken Pakston, Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Health and Human Services, and Travis County.
“This law has nothing to do with the health and safety of public safety and saving traditional agriculture from out of the state,” said Paul Sherman, a senior law firm representing Alta Foods and Wild Type, a senior lawyer at the Institute for Justice, Paul Sherman. “This is not a legitimate use of government power.”
Background
In June, legislators approved the Senate Bill 261, which banned the sale of meat from the lab for two years in Texas. The lab -growing meat, also known as sealing meat or decent meat, is made from taking animal cells and growing in incubators or bifters unless they are formed by edible products.
During the hearing of the Senate Committee, legislators expressed concern that civilized meat would disrupt traditional family farms in Texas, as well as concerns about product labeling and safety.
The ban was enforced on Monday.
Before the ban, Texas had only one restaurant selling decent protein. In the last month and a half, a high -end Sushi restaurant in Austin, Otoko, added wild type salmon to the Omakis menu.
Why are decent meat companies sue
The founders of a civilized meat company and their lawyers, organizing a press conference on Wednesday morning to prosecute SB 261, said the ban was “unconstitutional” and “non -American”.
“We believe the Americans should have the freedom to choose what to eat,” said Wild -type co -founder Justin Coleback. “We think even if you hate the idea of seafood cultivation, we hope you agree that if we want to feed ourselves and our family to the government, we are on a sloping slope.”
The federal government has considered cultivated meat safe to consumers, said Sherman, a central lawyer for the case. In 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two companies, upside down food and good meat to sell seal cultivated poultry, and a year later, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the label for “seal cultivated chicken” for products.
According to the Good Food Institute, by July, four companies have received regulatory clearance for selling decent meat in the United States.
Texas lawmakers and the Texas and the South Western Cattlers Association, who had testified before the SB -261 were approved, said they were worried about the safety of civilized meat products.
“The USDA and the FDA have agreed that these products are safe,” Sherman said. “If this is not good enough for some users, there is an easy solution, don’t eat it.”
Coleback added that wild type salmon does not have pollution that is commonly found in traditional seafood, such as heavy metals, antibiotics, microplastics and other pollution.
“In order to make the United States healthy needs innovation,” said Coleback.
What are cattle raisins and lawmakers saying
The Texas and South Western cattle Raisers Association did not immediately respond to the request for comment, but earlier, the Association’s President Karl Ray Polk Jr. said in an interview that the SB 261 was not about banning the competition.
“We are not backing up these products because we are concerned about competition,” said Polk.
The author of the bill, Sen. Charles Perry, R. Lebak, said “transparency and labeling, risk of pollution, and long -term health effects on the use of cell culture products” when he presented the bill during the hearing of the Senate Committee in March.
San Louis Kolkurst, R-Barian Ham, asked the Texas and the South Western Cattler Razers Association whether they were once again healthy or against the movement as a part of Mac America.
“I will also see the lab as the opposite,” said Dan Gates, a wanchor and lawyer from Georgetown.
The wider impact
Texas is the seventh state that has banned meat from lab, and this is the second case of the nation during such a ban. Last year, the Institute for Justice filed a similar case in Florida. If the ban on the sale of decent meat of Texas has been lifted, the Wildype has said in the litigation that they will resume selling their cultivated salmon in Otoko immediately and will reach other chefs in Texas to achieve partnerships. However, the state cannot immediately see the increase in sales of civilized proteins. Civilized meat scientists and experts agree that the industry is not yet ready to sell its products on a large scale.
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This article was originally published in the Texas Tribune
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