Governor Jim Pillen has signed an executive order prohibiting state agencies and contractors from buying cultivated meat products starting next year.
Pillen is using the Nebraska Department of Agriculture to develop new guidelines to “protect the state’s agriculture industry as well as consumers, from lab-grown meat,” he said.
Pillen also wants his agriculture department to begin developing a rulemaking process to ensure that any cultivated meat products sold in stores in Nebraska are “properly labeled and are not marketed next to natural meat on the same shelves.”
There are also plans In the works to pass legislation banning lab-grown meats from Nebraska.
Florida was the first state to enact a cultivated meat ban criminalizing the manufacture and sale of cell-cultured meat.
It went into effect July 1 and prompted an outcry from investors in biotech and food companies, in addition to sparking a lawsuit by alternative protein company Upside Foods.
Similar legislation was introduced In Alabama and Ohio soon after the initial move on cultivated meat by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in May.
I think courts will throw out all these laws. The best answer to this new competition is for farmers and meat packers to offer consumers products they prefer.
