Meat

A California-based producer of lab-grown poultry filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging a new Florida ban on selling or manufacturing “cultivated” meat. UPSIDE Foods, Inc., contends, in part, that the law violates a constitutional prohibition on favoring in-state businesses over out-of-state competitors.

As Florida’s ban on “lab-grown” meat is set to go into effect, one manufacturer hosted a last hurrah with a cultivated meat-tasting party in Miami.

DeSantis said the bill he signed will protect the state’s cattle industry against “an ideological agenda that wants to finger agriculture as the problem.”

The FDA has taken a first step towards green-lighting cultivated meat. The agency gave a safety nod to Upside Foods, which provided documentation to show their meat grown from animal cells is safe.

A larger White House campaign is targeting what it calls anti-competitive behavior in several industries, including meatpacking, in which over 80% of beef goes through just four companies.

The president invoked the Defense Production Act after more than a dozen beef, pork and poultry plants across the country shut down either temporarily or indefinitely in the past few weeks.

A prominent medical journal has published a new recommendation from a group of scientists concluding that there's no need to cut back on red and processed meats. This contradicts current guidelines.

01/07/14 - Tuesday's Topical Currents is with historian and author Maureen Ogle who’s documented the long history of the livestock and meat debate. It…