Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned lab-grown meat, saying he will “save our beef” from the “global elite” and its “authoritarian plans”.

“Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs,” Mr DeSantis said in a statement.

The first-in-the-nation law prohibits anyone from selling or distributing lab-grown meat in Florida.

Similar efforts are under way in Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee.

Lab-grown or “cultivated” meat was first cleared for consumption in the US in 2022.

The process of making cultivated meat involves extracting cells from an animal, which are then fed with nutrients such as proteins, sugars and fats. The end product is genetically indistinguishable from traditionally produced meat.

Studies have suggested that eating cultivated meat can cut carbon emissions and water usage, and free up land for nature, compared to eating traditionally produced meat.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Ah, the ‘global elite,’ who they also call ‘globalists.’ And who are they talking about?

    The term is now frequently used as a pejorative by far-right movements and conspiracy theorists, as in the New World Order conspiracy theory;[3] it is associated with antisemitism, as antisemites frequently appropriate the term globalist to refer to Jews.[3][4][5]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalism

    • meleecrits@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Remember, that’s just a wild conspiracy. Criticizing the Israeli government’s genocide is antisemitic though…

      • Ech@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        The way you’ve phrased this sounds like you think there really is a Jewish cabal that runs the world and is ruining it.

        • meleecrits@lemmy.world
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          I apologize if you thought I was implying that. I am in no way agreeing that there is a “Deep State” or anything to that effect. I was trying to draw criticism to DeSantis’ use of the word Globalists, which does have antisemitic overtones, while the House just passed a bill that could lead to criticism of Israel in any way would count as antisemitism.

          Sarcasm on the internet is hard to convey.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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      I think the term has no real meaning to them anymore. It’s just another term thrown at anything they don’t like, like “woke” or whatever. I’m sure some definitely use it deliberately, but I think most lack the directed prejudice and just use it lazily as a catch-all for “liberal”.

      • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        That’s the whole point of obfuscating it in the first place. If you come out and say “Jews who control the world want to force everyone to eat bugs”, you sound like an idiot. So, you give it a candy coating to make it go down better, and hope a certain percentage will eventually “do their own research” and come to your desired conclusion.

        It’s the most strategically sound method you can come up with to perpetuate the conspiracy theories in the modern day. It’s similar to how cults don’t start the recruitment process by walking up to you and going “Hey, want to join a cult?”

        • wanderer@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          The late, legendarily brutal campaign consultant Lee Atwater explains how Republicans can win the vote of racists without sounding racist themselves:
          You start out in 1954 by saying, “N*****, n*****, n*****.” By 1968 you can’t say “n*****”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N*****, n*****.”

          https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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        7 months ago

        Whatever they are saying is just a standin for a slur. Look at the tweet about “Baltimore’s DEI mayor” and too immediately see that they are just using CRT, woke, gender ideology, DEI, elite, or whatever new term comes into Vogue next month as a stand in for whatever applicable slur.

        • FirstCircle@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          whatever new term comes into Vogue

          These people are reading Vogue? That’s an interesting twist. I wouldn’t have thought the average Fascist would be all that into fashion. Fashists?

      • fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        It’s part of the “other,” which is used to create fear that drives support for their politicians.

        Right wing leaders and their propagandists can’t be too specific with concepts because large parts of them are contrived. They don’t need to be specific because their target audience is people who think and make decisions more with emotions, which doesn’t require clear concepts and terms, than reason.

        “The left” absolutely does it too, although it’s not as bad.

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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        They don’t just turn terms into slurs to rally the morons, they do it to attack the ideological base of their opponents.

        “Globalist” became a dogwhistle for Jewish people because fascists pretended to think socialism, which inherently rejects nationalism or loses all meaning, was a Jewish conspiracy. By turning it into a meaningless slur they’re not just turning their base against the idea, they’re making their opponents react to its use as slur.

        As it happens, neoliberalism ended up having a different kind of globalist goal, so they got a free 2 for 1 slur against their ideological enemies even though the end goals are wildly different. And, obviously, fascists don’t see the need to explain how the “Jewish conspiracy” is behind both socialism and neoliberalism.

        It also just turns people against the concept without understanding what it actually is.

        Thus me just last week having to argue with a “socialist” social democrat about how “globalism” isn’t a dogwhistle on an ideological level.

      • monsterlynn@kbin.social
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        7 months ago

        Definitely some of them use it that way. It’s clever in a thuggish way because the implication is that the base is just regular, normal folks.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Also the Harvard/Yale grad complaining about “elites”. Tell me again who gets into those schools? The run-of-the-mill pablum?

    • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      The ‘global elite’ wouldn’t touch lab grown meat. This stuff is meant to sustain the poor when cow meat production becomes cost prohibitive (it already is without government subsidies).

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        That’s ridiculous. Every scientist I have ever seen involved in this field says it is about getting people to give up or at least eat less meat for the good of the planet.

        • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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          Our points don’t disagree. Point #1 The goal is food production in order to sustain a growing population. Current production is ecologically and economically unsustainable. Point #2 The “global elite” wouldn’t be caught dead eating lab grown meat unless they are doing a promo for the “lab grown meat” company.

          • Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz
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            7 months ago

            Personally, I imagine the global elite to be Cypher, enjoying a succulent steak while selling out the rest of humanity to robots.

  • BurningnnTree@lemmy.one
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    7 months ago

    I can’t wait for lab grown meat to become widely available (in my state at least). I think it’s really cool. Being able to eat real meat without harming animals sounds so futuristic. It’s one piece of future technology that I can actually get behind.

    • subignition@fedia.io
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      Agreed. I think the environmental impact is much lower as well, which is basically a win/win if prices can compete with farmed animals.

      • Billiam@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        It could, if we could stop giving factory farms subsidies and give them to lab-meat-makers instead.

      • Enkrod@feddit.de
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        7 months ago

        I’m absolutely not sold on the lower ecological footprint, the same hubub was made about vertical farming and that was either highly expensive or came with a gigantic footprint.

        But I sure hope it pans out.

        • Chreutz@lemmy.world
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          Vertical farm viability scales almost inversely with electricity costs. And the latter trends lower and lower as time goes by. So I’m pretty confident that it’s coming.

          • ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee
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            I used to build large scale hydroponic farms over a decade ago and they are super efficient at using resources

    • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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      Yeah me too.

      Even if you don’t care about animals, synthetic will be cheaper, tastier, healthier, and better for the environment.

      Honestly the only thing not to like about it is that you don’t like the idea.

      • Agrivar@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I dream of lab-grown bacon. Each piece an identical example of bacon perfection: just the right thickness and ratio of meat to fat.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          A law mandating Floridians pay more for their food than any other U.S.citizen. Yeah, I’m sure that won’t be overturned.

          • Agrivar@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Not sure how that’s relevant to my statement regarding lab-grown bacon, but if you don’t think individual states pass laws that make their citizens pay more for things, you’re not very familiar with the U.S.A.

    • variants@possumpat.io
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      7 months ago

      The thing I never got about the plant based burger patties is they try to make it taste like a scrappy beef patty instead of making ot taste good in its own flavor. Like why can’t it just be its own thing like how a chicken sandwich is different than a beef burger

      • chetradley@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        The idea is that you can quickly and easily replicate a flavor you’re used to and remove the animal element. You can also buy it and have a good idea what it will taste like.

        But it’s not healthy! Yeah no kidding, when I eat a burger it’s generally not for the health benefits.

        • MilitantVegan@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Are you referring to plant-based burgers? That would definitely apply to Beyond and Impossible as they add way too much coconut oil, and salt. In other words they’re unhealthy for some of the same reasons animal flesh is unhealthy, although they are still less harmful than their animal counterparts just by lacking the animal proteins.

          • chetradley@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Pretty much. Although I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t add salt to a burger anyway, and the beyond/impossible burgers don’t need any extra, so I don’t think the sodium content is a super fair comparison.

      • RBWells@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        As others already noted, you can get veggie burgers that taste like veggie burgers. I actually order black bean burgers with bacon and cheese and jalapenos at the cafe at my work, they are so good. Like it much better with black bean burger than hamburger.

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        7 months ago

        I mean, you’re basically describing a black bean burger. The real question is why we still can’t buy like, pre-packaged black bean burger mix or ready made patties easily.

        • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          You can, at least in my local grocery stores. Black bean burger patties have been available in the frozen section for years.

          They’re a bit of a rip off because they’re way more expensive than a can of beans + spices, and probably an order of magnitude more expensive than dry beans + spices, but they’re usually around the same price as the premade beef patties, by weight.

          • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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            7 months ago

            Damn, guess I just live in an area where they’re not as common then. They’re definitely a rip-off, but then so are all pre-made patties. You pay a premium for the convenience.

            • interrobang@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              7 months ago

              If you live near Aldi’s, they have a frozen black bean patty available sometimes. I can’t tell the rhythm or reason to when they stock it, but they are reasonably priced and pretty tasty if ya see em

            • variants@possumpat.io
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              7 months ago

              I don’t think ive ever heard of a black bean burger I’ll have to see if I can make some one day

      • MilitantVegan@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Some of them are, and it doesn’t take long (maybe a year) on a plant-based lifestyle to start naturally preferring more plant-forward burgers.

      • Magnetic_dud@discuss.tchncs.de
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        It depends how they make them. Some plant based burgers are just made with scraps from soy milk production, look like expired meat and taste like polystyrene or worse while the impossible burger it’s difficult to distinguish with a blind test: the flavor, the texture and the appearance are extremely similar. They even have the fake blood in the middle

    • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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      One thing people are afraid of though is being “duped”. In a world where everyone is afraid of deception, they want all the products they consume to be clearly labeled. My partner thinks that they’ve been steadily replacing all meat with lab-grown and just not telling anyone and not labeling the packaging. Like, one day she stopped buying the chicken breasts she’d normally get, saying that “it doesn’t taste right. It doesn’t taste how it did pre-pandemic. They’ve done something to it.”

    • WIZARD POPE💫@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      The only thing I really dont know about is the texture. If its ground down it will be indistinguishable. But are they able to make steaks that look and feel like actual steaks?

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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    Do his supporters really believe hes an “every man” like them, and not literally one of the “global elite”?

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    “To fight authoritarianism, the government is going to restrict your dietary choices!”

    • Don Insantis
  • OpenStars@discuss.online
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    7 months ago

    If you don’t want it, don’t buy it, problem solved!

    bUt MuH fReEdOmS!?

    The only thing that can stop a bad meat maker is a good meat maker?!

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    For your convenience:

    https://www.goodmeat.co/

    The company who’s product they are banning.

    Along the same vein, there was another company recently who made plant based blue cheese that was disqualified from a blue cheese contest after they were going to take first.

    https://boingboing.net/2024/04/29/after-a-vegan-blue-cheese-won-the-good-food-award-panicked-dairy-cheese-makers-forced-the-foundation-to-disqualify-it.html

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    “Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs,” Mr DeSantis said in a statement.

    “Force the world” by… Having it as an option.

    The party of small government and the free market everybody!

  • Grayox@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    I want lab grown steaks so bad. Why are these ‘Capitalist’ so against the free market?

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      They always have been. Capitalism isn’t about a free market, it’s about keeping the richest most powerful industrialists at the top.

    • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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      Imo this is clearly influenced by the meat lobby, National Cattleman’s Beef Association, or the like. They know many people would happily pay for lab grown meat, which would destroy their current market, forcing a costly pivot where they would lose their historic market control.

      Whenever weird shit like this happens in the US, it’s all about money and market control and then painted as “protecting you from the EVIL LEFT” or some stupid shit.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    So, if the ‘global elite’ are not the 1%, and as seen from this whole Gaza thing, they are not ‘the jews’ (which is what I though Republicans were always coyly referring to when they used that term), who the heck do the Republicans think the ‘Global Elite’ are?

    • m13@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Queer students, the vaccinated, and single moms who have to work 3 shitty jobs to pay rent. Those are the true global elite.

      • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
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        7 months ago

        The real mental gumnastic exercise is understanding that they’re somehow both elite and weak beta cuck trash (add whatever other derisions you’d like).

        The enemy is both weak and strong.

    • SPRUNT@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Anyone who tries to benefit society without concern for profit.

      Actually, anyone who tries to do anything without concern for profit.

      If you’re not familiar with the Farengi from Star Trek, look them up. It matches Republicans pretty well.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      It’s still the Jews, I think.

      They just mean the ones that haven’t gone back to Israel where they clearly belong, unlike the nice normal white proper Americans, who definitely didn’t emigrate in from anywhere, and were here all along.

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    Maybe? I mean the big criticism is that it’s just highly processed food at the end of the day and that the process of production is what is the issue. This is of course an argument made by what you may call food purists, who’d rather you spend money on a proper blender than rely on big corporations to form Scop 2.0.

    But that’s not what Ronnie boy is thinking about. Oh no. He’s thinking about “owning the libs”, “showing them what for”, and what kind of cretinous, disingenuous bastard he can be. He would gladly invest in something like Scop 2.0 if it made a lot of money, AND performatively ban it in his state if it vaguely had an LGBTQ+ tinge to it.

    This is a careful reminder that some states banned solar panels out of spite… because people elect absolute troglodytes to represent them, and then have the balls to talk about “free markets”.

    GTFO here with your fake self. In fact, take the whole republican party with you.

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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      I mean the big criticism is that it’s just highly processed food at the end of the day and that the process of production is what is the issue.

      Not really? I honestly have not heard anyone argue like this against lab grown meat. The whole point of it is to have more ethical meat that also does not destroy our basis of life through emissions.

      • toomanypancakes@lemmy.world
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        There’s no ethical way to kill someone who’s done nothing to you and doesn’t want to die. There’s no such thing as ethical meat.

        Edit: I can’t read apparently

        • pezhore@lemmy.ml
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          I think that’s the point of lab grown meat. If you can harvest the stem cells of a living animal and use those to grow full sides of beef (I’m vastly oversimplifying the process), then no animals have been killed.

          Bonus, emissions may be lower depending when comparing typical animal emissions vs the facility that produces the LGM.

          • toomanypancakes@lemmy.world
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            I apologize, it’s early. The term ethical meat just annoys me, and I didn’t thoroughly read what I was responding to. While I question the ethics around obtaining the stem cells in practice, I do agree lab grown meat is radically better than taking the flesh from animals.