PHOENIX โ A panel of Arizona lawmakers voted Monday to make it illegal to call anything grown in a laboratory meat or poultry, saying they want to prevent consumer confusion.
The 6-3 vote by the House Committee on Land, Agriculture and Rural Affairs came over the objections of Drake Jamali, lobbyist for the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that says it is focused โon making plant-based and cultivated meat delicious, affordable and accessible.โโ
He said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration already requires anything produced in a lab to be labeled a โcell culturedโโ or โcell cultivatedโโ product. Thatโs enough to inform shoppers that what theyโre buying never came from a live animal, Jamali said.
But Rep. Quang Nguyen, R-Prescott Valley, said the FDA label is not adequate to inform consumers.
His House Bill 2244 would make it illegal to use any term that is โthe same or deceptively similarโโ to one historically linked to a specific meat or poultry product.
Jamali acknowledged the legislation could preclude items from being labeled โmeat pattiesโโ or โnuggets,โโ even if they included the FDA language about being โcell cultured.โโ
What Nguyen pushed through the committee on Monday is mild in comparison with a proposal by Rep. David Marshall. The Snowflake Republican wants to bar outright the sale or production of any โcell-cultured animal product for human or animal consumption.โโ
But Marshall, whose HB 2121 also was set to be debated Monday, said he withdrew the measure from immediate consideration while he works on unspecified amendments. The legislation could be back on the agenda this coming week.
Both measures are aimed at the nascent industry growing up around alternatives to raising and slaughtering animals for food.
Much already is available for consumers in the form of plant-based burgers, ground meat, nuggets and other similar products, which causes alarm among cattle growers.
โWhat they find is these plant-based products, theyโre not all what they appear to be,โโ said Rep. David Cook, R-Globe, who is a cattle rancher. He said people need iron they get โfrom a real steak, from a carcass.โโ
Cook said the FDA has said those who consume plant-based meats received below the daily requirements for calcium, potassium, magnesium, zinc and vitamin B-12.
Rep. Michael Carbone, R-Buckeye, was more direct. โWe want to protect our cattle and our ranches,โโ he said.
The lawmakersโ bigger and growing concern is over what can be produced in a lab.
It starts with the question of โis it meat?โโ
Shane Burgess, the dean of agriculture, life and environmental sciences at the University of Arizona, said different organizations have different standards.
For some, he told lawmakers, anything that is the flesh of animals, birds and fish qualifies. That would include lab-grown items since they meet that definition.
But he said other groups such as the American Society for Testing and Materials say meat has to come from something living.
That leaves the FDA requirement to list such products as โcell cultured.โโ
Tim Petersen, owner of Arizona Grassraised Beef and a cattle rancher, said thatโs hardly satisfactory. He said thereโs still a lot of research being done.
โI donโt think the federal government has really clear parameters on what is lab-based or what is bovine calf serum,โโ Petersen said, referring to one of the products used to promote cell growth.
โThereโs a lot of words and a lot of shucking and jiving that goes on in the meat business,โโ he told lawmakers, which he said leaves lots of room for creative wording. For example, Petersen said, the state Department of Agriculture allows meats to be listed as โArizona grown.
โAnd you can literally slaughter cattle in the state and use the โArizona grownโ logo,โโ he said.
But Berry Mendoza, testifying on behalf of Mission Barns, which produces products that contain real meat but without slaughtering an animal, warned lawmakers to be careful about exactly how much information they want to mandate for consumers.
Why not, he said, require pieces of meat at grocery stores to be labeled โArizona slaughtered baby calfโโ? he asked. Mendoza said labeling requirements can be used to deter consumers.
Cook said that proves his point. โWhen people go to the meat counter, thatโs what they expect to find in the meat counter is meat from carcasses,โโ he said.
โI like meat and I am supportive of the industry,โโ said Rep. Mariana Sandoval, D-Goodyear. โAnd we should definitely keep an eye on this technology.โโ
But she voted against the measure. โI am not convinced that there is any mislabeling happening,โโ Sandoval said.
Rep. Lupe Diaz, R-Benson, disagreed, finding the FDA requirements insufficient. He said the term โcultivatedโโ makes it sound like โsomething that was grown from the earth.โ
The measure now needs approval of the full House.
