Alabama, Arizona, and Tennessee move to join Florida with ban on lab-grown meat - the 'global elite's dystopian bug food'Southern Red states line up to join Florida banning lab-grown meat - the 'global elite's dystopian bug food'

Efforts against lab-grown meat across Red America gained traction this week, with Florida Gov Ron DeSantis signing a first-in-the-nation ban of the products.

DeSantis inked a bill to prohibit anyone from selling or distributing lab-grown meat in Florida.

He said it will 'save our beef' from the 'global elite' that wants to change US diets.

Similar efforts are under way in Alabama, Arizona, and Tennessee.

'Florida is fighting back against the global elite's plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs,' the Republican said.

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis vows to 'save our beef' from the 'global elite' that wants to change US diets

Advocates of lab-grown meat say it's lean, safe, nutritious, and doesn't hurt the planet 

Lab-grown or 'cultivated' meat was first cleared for consumption in the US in 2022.

Their product is derived from a small sample of cells collected from livestock, which is then fed nutrients, and grown in enormous steel vessels called bioreactors.

It is then processed into something that looks and tastes like a real cut of meat.

Advocates say the products are packed with protein and cause less emissions of planet-heating gases than regular farming.

The World Economic Forum, a globalist group in Switzerland, touts lab-grown meat as an efficient and environmentally-friendly way to produce food, and feed a rapidly growing global population.

It also promotes insect farming as a 'credible and alternative protein source.'

Lobbyists for edible insects have launched a campaign asking the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to add mealworms, crickets protein powder and other insect products to the agency's database of safe ingredients.

Republicans say the new foods will hurt ranchers, farmers, and meat-packers.

That's making lab-grown meat a new front in America's culture wars.

At an event on Wednesday, Mr DeSantis said he was 'fighting against an ideology that ultimately wants to eliminate meat production in the US and around the globe.'

Lab-grown meat: not everybody is willing to give it a shot

Republicans say the new foods will hurt ranchers, farmers, and meat-packers 

'In the state of Florida we've put down the marker very clearly; we stand with agriculture. We stand with the cattle ranchers,' he said.

Florida's commissioner of agriculture Wilton Simpson praised the legislation.

'Florida is taking a tremendous step in the right direction by signing first-in-the-nation legislation banning lab-grown meat,' he said.

Even Pennsylvania Democrat Senator John Fetterman came out in support of the law.

It 'pains me deeply' to agree with Mr DeSantis, he posted on X, 'but I co-sign this.'

Good Meat, a cultivated meat company which says it is the first in the world to sell lab-grown meat, says it was 'disappointed' by the Florida law.

'In a state that purportedly prides itself on being a land of freedom and individual liberty, its government is now telling consumers what meat they can or cannot purchase,' the company said.

Lab-grown meat companies are struggling to offer their beef steaks and chicken breasts at a more affordable price.

But the firms are optimistic that meat grown in massive steel vats will soon be widely available in restaurants and supermarkets.

The product is derived from cells from livestock, which are fed nutrients, and grown in enormous steel vessels 

Their product is derived from a small sample of cells collected from livestock, which is then fed nutrients, and grown in enormous steel vessels called bioreactors.

It is then processed into something that looks and tastes like a real cut of meat.

As well as lawmakers, lab-grown meat firms must overcome a reluctance among some consumers to even try their products.

That's according to a DailyMail.com/ TIPP Poll, which found that only a fifth of voters were keen to try the cultured alternative to meat.

An overwhelming 65 percent of respondents said they were not keen to try lab grown meat.

Only 21 percent of them said they wanted to give it a shot.

Opinions were similar across the country, although those in the West were slightly less hostile to the cultured products.

While a third of young adults were keen to taste lab-grown meat, only 11 percent of those aged 65 and above felt the same way.

Men were slightly more likely to give it a shot than women, and blacks and Latinos were keen on a dietary experiment than were whites.

Our survey revealed great resistance to a product that Republicans say will hurt ranchers and farmers   

One among the 21 percent of people who's willing to give lab-grown meat the taste test 

An overwhelming two thirds of Americans say they are not keen to try it, and another 14 percent were not sure.

There was also a partisan divide. Fully 31 percent of Democrats were keen to try the product, compared to just 14 percent of Republicans.

Janet Tomiyama, a health psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, says people are grossed out by cultivated meat.

Some consumers perceive it to be 'unnatural' and don't want to try it, she told Reuters.

In a 2022 study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, she found that 35 percent of meat eaters and 55 percent of vegetarians would be too disgusted to try cultivated meat.

Our survey suggests that attitudes against the products are hardening.

That could be bad for the environment.

Growing meat in a steel vessel instead of in a field could reduce the environmental impact of livestock.

According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock causes 14.5 percent of the world's planet heating gases through feed production, deforestation, manure management, and 'animal burps.'