The Florida House on Wednesday gave final approval to a wide-ranging bill that would ban lab-grown meat and local regulation of electric-vehicle charging stations.
The Republican-controlled House voted 86-27 to approve the bill (SB 1084), which is ready to go to Gov. Ron DeSantis. The bill would make several changes related to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Democrats took aim at parts of the bill that would ban the sale and manufacture of cultivated meat, which DeSantis has denounced as "fake meat," and prevent local governments from regulating electric-vehicle charging stations.
Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, said both bans are intended to "stop innovation, put barriers on the free market and to lock us into existing frameworks."
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Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, said the “food fight” part of the bill “sends a bad message” to researchers and investors about cultivated meat, which is often known as lab-grown meat.
“I think it will deter future manufacturers from coming to Florida because they don't know what day of the week that the Legislature will be OK with them being in the state of Florida,” Hunschofsky said.
But House bill sponsor Danny Alvarez, R-Hillsborough County, said questions remain about the safety of cultivated meat. He said selling cultivated meat needs to wait, though research over time might show it is viable for consumption.
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“If you believe that we are doing this because we know that Florida agriculture can hold us down and provide plenty of safe, quality beef and agricultural products, you are absolutely correct,” Alvarez said. “And if you believe we are banning this so we are safer, you are also correct.”
The measure, which passed the Senate last week, would allow research into cultivated meat. Production involves a process of taking a small number of cultured cells from animals and growing them in controlled settings to make food.
A potential research ban was removed from earlier versions of the bill because of concerns that such a ban could affect the space industry, which is looking at cultivated meats for long-term space journeys.
Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville, said it's fine to develop “Moon meat” for astronauts, but cattlemen like himself won’t advocate for it.
“I think they can make it on the Moon and export it on Mars, and it’s fine to have Martian meat as well,” Black said. “If you go to the Moon, if you go to Mars, you should be allowed to get it there. But you sure as heck shouldn’t be able to get it anywhere in this country, and sure as heck not here in Florida.”
The bill would make it a second-degree misdemeanor to sell or manufacture lab-grown meat.
Meanwhile, the bill would put oversight of electric-vehicle charging stations under the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which regulates pumps at gas stations.
Florida has about 3,230 public charging stations in 44 of the 67 counties, and a staff analysis of the bill said electric vehicles made up nearly 3 percent of cars sold in Florida from July 2020 to July 2021.
A 2021 state law already prohibits local governments from mandating such things as electric-vehicle charging stations on gas retailers. That law was in reaction to a move by Petaluma, Calif., to ban new gas stations with the intention of accelerating the shift to electric vehicles.
