A federal judge has turned down a cultivated meat company’s request to block the enforcement of a new Florida law that bans the sale or manufacture of meat products produced from cultured animal cells.
Judge Mark Walker of the Northern District of Florida handed down the opinion on Oct. 11, concluding that California-based Upside Foods Inc. is not entitled to a preliminary injunction because its preemption claims are not likely to succeed.
The counsel for Upside Foods, the nonprofit public-interest law firm Institute for Justice, argued that the Florida ban on cultivated meat products was preempted by a federal law, the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA). But Walker said the plaintiff had not met the burden of proof required for imposing an injunction.
“... This court concludes that (the) plaintiff has failed to meet its burden to establish that it is substantially likely to succeed on the merits of its express preemption claims under either the ‘ingredient requirement’ or the ‘premises, facilities and operations requirement’ provisions of (PPIA),” the opinion states.
Defendant Wilton Simpson, Florida’s commissioner of agriculture, expressed satisfaction with the court’s judgment on the injunction.
“It's a real win for consumers and food safety,” Simpson said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “I intend to continue to fight against fake meat. We're not going to allow Florida to be guinea pigs for California corporations pushing this experiment.”
When Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the cultivated meat ban into law in May, officials pointed to the need to protect traditional agriculture in the state, according to the Institute for Justice (IJ). But IJ attorneys said the new law is unconstitutional and attempts to stamp out competition from out-of-state companies to offer alternatives to meat from slaughtered livestock.
“Preliminary injunctions are just that: preliminary,” Paul Sherman, IJ’s senior attorney, said in a prepared statement. “The real fight is still ahead, and (the Oct. 11) ruling has no bearing on the final resolution of this case. We always expected the bulk of the lawsuit to be decided on its merits, and that’s exactly where we’re headed.”
IJ also stressed that cultivated meat has been deemed safe for consumption by the federal Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The ban on cultivated meat products amounts to economic protectionism, according to IJ.
“We are looking forward to appealing this preliminary decision while the case goes forward,” IJ attorney Suranjan Sen said in a statement. “(The Oct. 11) ruling is just a procedural step, and we are confident that the courts will ultimately recognize that Florida cannot ban products simply to protect local industries from honest competition.”
Because the Florida ban will remain in place as the litigation moves forward, Upside Foods will not be able to sell or distribute its cultivated chicken and other products in the state. Under the law’s provisions, the company would be subject to civil and criminal penalties if it acts in violation of the law, according to the court opinion. A knowing violation of the statute is considered a second-degree misdemeanor.
Upside Foods argues that its main product is real chicken meat grown from chicken cells. The food gives people with ethical concerns about factory farming another food option that doesn’t involve raising and killing animals, according to the company.