Last week, the DeSantis Lab Grown Meat bill was signed into law.
The particulars of that bill? To simply ban the production and sale of cultured meat.
The reason? Here’s what DeSantis said …
Florida is 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. We will save our beef.
A few things …
- No one is forcing anyone to eat cultured meat. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to even consume anywhere in the world unless you work in the industry. Cultured meat is still in its earliest stages of development. It won’t even be available at any significant scale for at least another ten to 20 years.
- Most commercially-available food today is produced with ingredients made in a lab. Preservatives, food dyes, flavor enhancers. We don’t grow and harvest this stuff from farms. It’s made in labs. And we eat it everyday. If DeSantis really had a problem with food grown in a “petri dish,” he’d also have a problem with the dozens of lab-produced foods and food ingredients that have become standard in most American diets.
- And what’s with “We will save our beef?” From what? Even if cultured meat was widely available, conventional meat producers would not be outlawed from selling steaks, pork chops or chicken. Ironically, the biggest threat to meat producers is the increase in extreme weather conditions, likely as a result of climate change. Something DeSantis doesn’t believe is real.
But the truly unfortunate thing about all this is that Ron DeSantis, along with the thousands of his minions who seem to be terrified of something they really know little about, actually oppose something that could benefit society.
DeSantis lab grown meat fight is based on politics, not science
Although cultured meat is not yet ready for mass consumption, one day, this stuff could prove to be quite valuable. Potential benefits include:
- Reductions in water usage
- Reductions in land usage
- The near elimination of waste streams from feedlots
- Reductions in carbon emissions
- Less chances of contamination from bacteria, parasites, and viruses
And perhaps most importantly, the potential to reduce food insecurity and battle hunger. Something not a single person from the DeSantis lab grown meat camp has addressed.
While it’s quite expensive to produce cultured meat today, eventually those costs will fall below traditional meat production costs. Why else do you think companies such as Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN), JBS (OTCBB: JBSAY), Ingredion (NYSE: INGR), and Cargill have been investing millions into cultured meat research and production?
According to a McKinsey & Co report, the cost to produce cultured meat could reach parity with conventional meat production by 2030. I’m not sure it’ll happen that fast, but keep in mind that the very first cultured beef burger cost $325,000 to produce in 2013. Today, it costs less than $20.
To be sure, this massive decline in production costs is primarily the result of private investors funding and nurturing this technological innovation in a relatively free market. Because of that, we’re now witnessing the dawn of a new form of meat production that could ultimately be superior to traditional meat production from an environmental perspective and cost perspective. The result will be a cleaner planet and millions of hungry people getting fed.
This is not a bad thing. But just the idea of producing meat in a lab is enough to scare a lot of folks into believing they need the government to protect them from a new type of food technology they know absolutely nothing about.
Now we have dipped our toes into the cultured meat space as investors, and the results haven’t been great. In all fairness, it’s probably still a bit too early to make any real money from this space. But give it time.
While I certainly criticize no one for being skeptical of investing in the culture meat market, I will criticize any lawmaker who believes his or her own prejudices about lab-grown meat take precedence over the basic principles of free market capitalism.
