WEST POINT — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced Thursday he's putting the heat on "fake" meat, prohibiting procurement of cell-cultured food products by state agencies and proposing new labeling rules to ensure shoppers don't get duped.
Pillen said he would pursue further restrictions in the next session of the Legislature to protect Nebraska ag producers.
"If there are Nebraskans who want to buy lab-grown meat, good for them," he said. "They're just not going to do it in Nebraska."
He made the announcement at Oak Barn Beef, a West Point company owned by Eric and Hannah Klitz. The business ships Nebraska beef to customers in all 50 states.
The governor said it's important to defend agriculture in light of "extraordinary, crazy views out there that there's going to be different ways to feed the planet."
"We are going to get very aggressive," Pillen said, "and make sure that Nebraskans are not going to get confused by how meat is labeled. People are not going to come into Nebraska and sell product that has 'meat' on it that's not meat."
He said he signed an executive order restricting procurement by state agencies.
In addition, the order requires that all parties awarding contracts through state procurement to attest that they won't discriminate against "natural" meat products in favor of laboratory or cultivated meat.
Sherry Vinton, director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, said a hearing would be held Oct. 8 on proposed new labeling rules.
The rules would require packaging to "clearly and distinctly" distinguish manufactured protein products from natural, real meat raised by the state's livestock producers, Vinton said.
"Without these regulations, people can be misled, they can be deceived into buying a product that they didn't intend on buying," she said.
The department is drawing on its authority under the Pure Food Act to create the labeling requirements, she said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture last year authorized two companies, UPSIDE Foods and Good Meat, as the country's first to sell chicken made with animal cells.
According to USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, the production process generally involves scientists obtaining cells from livestock, poultry or seafood, putting them in a large, sealed vessel and growing them in a controlled environment.
Scientists feed nutrients to the cells, which multiply many times over into billions or trillions of cells.
Removing the cells typically doesn't kill the animal, the department says.
State bans have prompted lawsuits
At least 17 states, including Iowa, have passed legislation creating a variety of requirements for cell-cultured and meat alternative food products, according to the National Agricultural Law Center at the University of Arkansas.
A number of those laws have been challenged in lawsuits, the center said.
In their 2024 legislative sessions, lawmakers in Alabama, Arizona, Florida and Tennessee considered legislation banning the manufacture, sale or distribution of cell-cultured meat, the center said. Florida and Alabama both passed the legislation, and their governors signed it into law.
On May 1, Florida became the first state in the U.S. to ban cell-cultured meat.
Upside Foods of Berkeley, California, this month sued Florida over its law.
The company claims to have produced the world’s first cultivated chicken and duck meat as well as the world’s first cultivated beef meatball in 2016.
The company, in federal court documents, and texture of conventional chicken without the need for butchering the birds.
The product, it says, is an ethical alternative that's already been served at restaurants and tasting events throughout the country.
"Simply put," it told the court, "consumers and restaurateurs like UPSIDE’s product because it tastes like chicken, which isn’t surprising, since it’s made from chicken."
The company claims the law is unconstitutional because certain federal laws already regulate the poultry industry. UPSIDE claims its process is more environmentally friendly than raising live animals, limiting the costs of producing and transporting animal feed and curbing the greenhouse gases and waste produced by livestock.
The company Good Meat says on its website that "GOOD Meat is real meat, made without tearing down a forest or taking a life."
Nebraska beef producer Jeanne Reigle, who joined Pillen for the announcement, pushed back on claims of the benefits of cultured meat.
Reigle said the energy demands to create cultured meat probably far outweigh the greenhouse gases from conventional ranching.
She also challenged claims the lab-grown meats are free of pathogens.
"There's several failure points along the lab process for bacteria to be introduced and infect the raw product and cause food poisoning," she said.
People who criticize conventional agriculture as cruel "have not been out to our ag producers and see the safe humane conditions, and in the slaughtering process," she said.
The Iowa law effective July 1 prohibits the sale of "manufactured protein food products" if mislabeled as a meat product.
There must be a "qualifying term" to make clear the product is an alternative.
The Iowa law gives examples of such terms including "cell-cultivated," "fake," "grown in a lab," "meat-free" or "imitation."
One of these terms would have to be displayed conspicuously and prominently.
Under the law, Iowa Board of Regents, school boards and community college boards must adopt policies to prevent the purchase of cultivated protein food products and products misbranded as meat.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Thursday announces plans to restrict lab-grown meats. Pillen said restrictions will protect the state's ag producers. He made the announcement at Oak Barn Beef in West Point.Â