A lab-grown meat tasting party held before Florida’s ban

California’s Upside Foods hosted a crowd of guests Thursday evening at its rooftop lobby in downtown Wynwood, known for its street art, bars, nightclubs and trendy restaurants.

“This is delicious meat,” says Upside Foods CEO and founder Uma Valeti. “And we believe that people should choose what they want to put on their plate.”

The US approved the sale of what is now called “cell-cultivated” or “cell-cultured” meat for the first time in June 2023, allowing Upside Foods and another California company, Good Meat, to sell cultured chicken. .

Earlier this year, Florida and Alabama banned the sale of farmed meat and seafood, which are grown using animal cells. Other states and federal lawmakers also want to limit it, saying the product could harm farmers and pose a public safety risk.

When Florida cattlemen joined Gov. When Ron DeSantis signed the ban into law in May, Valeti said Florida officials never reached out to his company before passing the law.

“It is clear to us that the governor and the government were told the wrong thing,” said Valeti. “And all we’re asking for is an opportunity to have an honest conversation and say, ‘this is proven science, this is proven safety.'”

Crops are grown in metal tanks using the cells of a living animal, a fertilized egg or a storage bank. The cells are supplied with a special combination of water, sugar, fat and vitamins. Once they are mature, they are made into cutlets, nuggets and other shapes.

Chef Mika Leon, owner of Caja Caliente in Coral Gables, prepared the farm-raised chicken for Thursday’s event, which invited members of the South Florida community to get their first, and perhaps last, taste of farm-raised meat before Florida’s ban on Monday. Leon served chicken tostadas with avocado, chipotle crema and beet sprouts.

“When you cook it, it smokes and cooks like chicken, which was crazy,” said Leon. “And if you go to eat it, it has water.”

Receptionist Alexa Arteaga said she can think of organic meat as a more ethical alternative.

“The texture itself is a little different, but the taste was really good,” Arteaga said. “It’s much better than I expected.”

Another guest, Skyler Myers, agreed that it looks different when you eat a piece of meat on its own but said it just looks like a normal chicken when eating a tostada.

“There is no difference,” Myers said. “I mean, there’s no way you’d know.”

Apart from the ethical issues surrounding the killing of animals, Valeti said that farmed meat avoids many of the health and environmental problems caused by the meat industry, such as deforestation, pollution and the spread of disease. He also noted that the meat produced by his company does not come from a lab but from a facility that is almost like a factory or a dairy.

“We don’t have animals in captivity,” said Valeti. “We have healthy animal cells growing in farmers.”

The restrictions come despite farmed meat and seafood still being too expensive to make sense on the market. Two high-end US restaurants briefly added the products to their menus, but they are not yet available in any US grocery stores. Companies have been working to reduce costs by increasing production, but are now also trying to respond to the ban with complaints and possible legal action.

Sean Edgett, Upside Foods’ chief legal officer, said the company spent years with the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration before getting approval. He said those federal laws should supersede any state bans, which he believes are unconstitutional.

“We hope that if the lawmakers can change their minds and change things back to the path of progress, the courts will step in and clarify that,” said Edgett.

Supporters of the ban say they want to protect farmers and consumers from a product that has been around for almost a decade.

State Sen. Jay Collins, a Republican who sponsored the Florida bill, noted that the law does not only prohibit the research, production and sale of farmed meat. Collins said safety was his main motivation, but he also wants to protect Florida agriculture.

“Let’s not rush to change something,” Collins said earlier this year. “It is an industry that brings in billions of dollars. We feed a large number of people across the country with our cattle, beef, pork, poultry and fish industries.”

Valeti isn’t trying to replace any industry, just give people more options, he said.

“We want to have more choices that feed us,” Valeti said. “Some of those decisions are conventional farming. Some of those choices come from plant-based foods. And farmed meat is a sustainable alternative.”