“This ban is a massive win for Texas ranchers, producers, and consumers,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement following the bill’s passage. “Texans have a God-given right to know what’s on their plate, and for millions of Texans, it better come from a pasture, not a lab. It’s plain cowboy logic that we must safeguard our real, authentic meat industry from synthetic alternatives.”
…
Texas joins Indiana, Mississippi, Montana and Nebraska in enacting new laws this year; Alabama and Florida did so last year. In March, the Oklahoma House approved a similar bill that did not advance out of the Senate this session.
Free market my fucking ass
Freedom to fuck over certain groups of people who threaten their power. So brave.
You are free to bribe a politician and influence the market all you want /s
The SmAlL gOvErNmEnT GOP, playing favorites and legislating in favor of one of the unhealthiest, ecologically devastating industries on the planet… But their voters will keep voting for the corruption!
Why won’t anyone let the market decide?!? 😭
It’s about control, they don’t want us deciding anything.
I’m pretty sure this is a huge self own and in a decades time Texans who enjoy knowing what’s on their plate will be envious of their interstate bretheren enjoying tastier healthier cuts at a reduced price.
I’m pretty sure this is a huge self own
Congratulations, you understand every Texas legislative session since Ann Richards was governor.
Lab grown animal cells will always be more expensive than animal-grown animal cells. Animals have immune systems; lab cells have to be kept in a sterile environment, a significant cost. Animals have digestive systems and can power cell growth and all other functions from common plant materials; lab cells have to be fed pre-digested and carefully proportioned material, a significant cost. Animals have circulatory systems that efficiently perfuse oxygen and nutrients, and remove waste; lab cell containers have to be centrifuged in small containers because the forces required in large containers damage the cells. And so on.
The real potential for equal-tasting, cheaper, better-for-environment cuts is in plant-based imitations like what Impossible brand and its competitors are doing.
These laws banning lab grown cells are banning designer lab-grown cuts as a luxury good. Once that market matures, I am sure the wealthy people who jump on the conspicuous consumption bandwagon will not have any problem getting the law repealed or exceptions carved out for them.
Your entire comment assumes the state of the art for lab growing proteins is static and will not enjoy economies of scale.
I am sure it will enjoy economies of scale. Lab grown meat is currently something like 1000x the cost of animal-grown meat: I am confident they can get that down to 10x, maybe single digits. I am equally confident the inherent inefficiency of growing muscle cells without the integrated functions of the rest of the animal mean the lab cost will never be lower.
1,000×? That’s ancient history. In 2013, yeah, the first cultured burger was $330,000 (Wikipedia). Now?
SuperMeat is running full 25,000 L tanks at $11.79/lb (Green Queen, AgFunderNews) — that’s premium chicken territory, not sci-fi pricing.
Believer Meats is modeling $6.20/lb with TFF tech (Green Queen) — organic chicken prices.
Average industry cost right now is $17–23/lb (Katie Couric Media) and even a conservative academic model puts big-scale production at $28.50/lb (ScienceDirect). Still single-digit multiples, not thousands.
So no — we’re not talking “someday maybe.” We’re already at 2–4× conventional chicken for the best setups, and the price curve is still falling. Will it ever be cheaper than farm-grown? Maybe, maybe not — inefficiency is real. But “never” is a bet against tech that’s already crushed costs by over 99.99% in a decade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosa_Meat
https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/supermeat-cultivated-lab-grown-meat-cost-process
https://katiecouric.com/news/sustainability/what-is-lab-grown-meat-benefits-and-challenges
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666154322000916
You’ve really just enumerated some of the advantages traditional production has over synthetic meats.
Animals need arable land - something which will be in very short supply given climate change.
Animals are a significant source of greenhouse gas production.
Raising animals is in many cases unethical.
Synthetic meat production is not as dependent on regular climate cycles.
Animal husbandry is a mature technology with little opportunity for advancement.
I wish my stomach could handle impossible meats but they just immediately go through me. For me going towards a more plant based diet will require avoiding highly processed meat replacements.
That’s interesting, I hadn’t realized they affected some people that way. I have noticed their “beef” and “pork” products include a lot of fat, maybe the greasy slipperiness contributes to the effect? I’d like to think use in dishes where the other ingredients are low-fat would balance things out, but if not that’s sad for that brand.
In my case it’s the pea protein isolates. That burger spent so little time in my belly that I doubt I digested much of it.
edit: pea proteins are a known problem for my family
that explains a lot. there’s that restaurant down in santa nella that you either love or it gives you the runs and i never thought it was a heritable pea protein thing.
It’s specifically the ultra processed isolated proteins from peas. I can eat cooked peas or raw in pod peas without a problem but vegan pea based “ice cream” is in my belly for minutes at best. For ice cream replacements it has to be oat or coconut based.
thank you for sharing more info. i’ve not explored it too much myself.
Reduced price seems like a massive stretch.
The costs of production are decreasing dramatically.
The most recent development is switching to a plant based growth medium instead of fetal bovine serum (?) which will reduce costs by 80%.
So long as there are multiple producers they will compete on price.
The fact that you think it’ll be cheaper shows you havent been paying very much attention to capitalism.
Everytime a thing like this comes along, that promises a cheaper, better solution… It ends up being neither .
This isbpatently false, and disregards the fundamentals of economics. Well done.
Oh well, if you say it, it must be true… even if it flies in the face of established capitalist behavior and precedent.
Yes capitalists are profit maximisers.
However, many competing producers will minimise the cost to consumers.
This is true of any technology ever developed.
Lab grown meat is a dead meme imo but acting like Texan beef comes from grass fed cows in pastures and not from hellish factory farms where they get fed corn until their liver dies sure sounds stupid
It’s about appeasing the rich cattle ranchers, just like their lax environmental and zoning laws for oil and industry. The gulf of Mexico around Texas is extremely polluted.
You follow the meat, you get butchers and meat eaters.
But you start to follow the money, and you don’t know where the fuck it’s gonna take you.
Well not really. Beef production is not a significant industry in Texas, and its generally known more for sheep than cattle.
But beef is “manly” and so fuckwit dumb failed lawyers, who would squeal at the sight of a shovel, boast about supporting it.
Google AI awnser
Texas leads the United States in cattle production, holding the top spot for beef cows and overall cattle inventory. In 2024, Texas had 4,075,000 beef cows, accounting for 14.62% of the U.S. total, according to the National Beef Wire. Texas also ranks first in the number of all cattle and calves, with 12.2 million head. This represents a significant portion of the U.S. cattle population, with Texas alone accounting for 14% of the total. Here’s a breakdown of Texas meat production by numbers:
Beef Cows: 4,075,000 (January 1, 2025) Cattle & Calves: 12.2 million head Percentage of U.S. Beef Cow Inventory: 14.62% Economic Impact: Cattle are Texas's biggest agricultural commodity, with a market value of $15.5 billion in 2022. Commercial Red Meat Production (2017): 397.3 million pounds Hog Inventory (December 2024): 1,170,000 Goat Inventory (January 1, 2025): 22,000 Sheep & Lamb Inventory (January 1, 2025): 670,000 Broiler Production (Head): 727,500,000Texas’s dominance in cattle production significantly contributes to the state’s economy and the overall U.S. beef supply.
Texans have a God-given right to know what’s on their plate
This sounds a lot like anti-vaxxing, where people want to “know” what’s in their vaccine. Like it’s a conspiracy.
I bet the lab folks could tell you what’s in their product much better than ranchers and meat processing factories ever could. A lot of science goes into it though and some people seem to be allergic to that, at least based on the sorts of claims they make.
Yes, that’s basically the idea, I guess.
Like with vaccines.
It doesn’t fit in a Tweet though.
A scientist telling you the name of every compound of some food doesnt make you actually know whats in it. Theres a big difference between knowing the name and knowing the thing and how it affects your body.
Well if it really mimics the real thing it will probably be a type 1 carcinogen too.
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here. Are you suggesting that lab-grown meat wouldn’t be controlled by existing laws on what can be in food and will contain some chemical with unknown effects on the human body (outside of those in natural meat)? And that we know all about the effects of whatever contaminants or bio-accumulants may end up in natural meat? I don’t believe either of those. If we went further and listed everything that went into the animal and the culture that grew the meat, for which we would know more about the effect on the human body?
To reiterate, I bet the lab folks could tell you the effect of their product on your body much better than ranchers and meat processing factories (or anyone else) ever could of theirs.
My point is about how people trust new types of food. Knowing the name of the compounds in a food doesnt help in making someone trust it. People trust alimentary habits that are centuries old more than a newly developed method that they have no familiarity with. Im talking about trust on safety regulations rather than the actual regulations.
If only Texans could read (labels) they would know instantly. The end of the quote is the real focus: they want to protect the ranching industry by killing competition from plant based products.
We need to be funding this stuff.
Move all meat subsidies into lab-grown meat to save animals and still have meat. Easy.
Everybody trying to act like it’s bad is lying and likes animals getting hurt.
It’s just plain cowboy logic!
yay. let’s torture even more animals!
Feels kinda unconstitutional to me. They could say you can’t sell it for consumption, but not sell it at all seems like an overstep.
More freedumb.
Call it something else, rebrand it. We could say that if it didnt come from an animal, its not meat, its just a protein cake or a red pudding, or something. Could it avoid the ban this way?
They didnt ban any vegan protein source, they banned the exact one that tries to make you feel like youre eating beef. The name “Lab-grown meat” tells those ranchers that it wants to replace them, its unnecessarily aggressive, which innevitably creates a reaction.
It’s like changing “lab-grown butter” to margarine. Lol, can’t stop people from whipping oil.
Pretty sure beans are 1000% a bigger threat to ranchers.
What company do I invest in to support this?
This will be bigger than legal weed and the idiot states banning it are showing us yet again how fucking stupid they are.
Edit
Upside Foods, but ANIC , AGNMF, and CULTF are the investing groups.
Easiest solution? Spread those ticks that give meat sensitivity around
Where? Barely two blades of grass still standing in this state that haven’t been paved over.
