California Company Sues Florida Over Ban on Lab-Grown Meat

Food tech firm UPSIDE Foods Inc. is suing Florida officials over the state’s lab-grown meat ban, claiming the regulation violates the U.S. Constitution. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the law in May, prohibiting the sale of lab-grown meat in the state. Any person involved in the manufacture, sale, or distribution of cultivated meat could be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor. UPSIDE Foods, a startup from Berkeley, California, that produces cultivated meat—also known as lab-grown meat—filed a lawsuit against the ban in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on Monday. “UPSIDE doesn’t want to force anyone to eat cultivated meat. But it does want the opportunity to distribute its product to willing consumers, so that those consumers can decide for themselves whether UPSIDE’s product is worth eating. And UPSIDE has a right to do so, because SB 1084 is unconstitutional,” the lawsuit said....