AUSTIN (KXAN) If you鈥檙e hoping to eat a meatball made of woolly mammoth and grown in a lab, you鈥檙e going to have to leave Texas.
A new law passed this legislative session has made it illegal to sell 鈥渃ell culture protein for human consumption鈥 in Texas. The bill, Senate Bill 261, will go into effect Sept. 1, 2025, and will expire in 2027.
The law makes Texas the seventh state to ban the sale of lab-grown or cultured meat. Indiana passed a similar law in May. Nebraska, Montana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida also have bans in effect.
鈥淎s ranchers we produce 19% of the world鈥檚 beef with only 6% of the world鈥檚 cattle,鈥 said Carl Ray Polk with the Texas Southwest Cattle Raisers Association at a committee hearing on March 31, 鈥渂ut some have decided a lab is better than a pasture.鈥
鈥淭he lab-grown meat sector will continue to face headwinds as consumers and lawmakers learn more about the the lack of long-term health studies and use of 鈥榠mmortalized cells鈥欌 said Jack Hubbard, executive director of the Center for the Environment and Welfare (CEW), in a press release. CEW is a thinktank and one of the leading critics of lab-grown meat.
The bill was authored by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, and sponsored by Rep. Stan Gerdes, R-Texas, in the House.
鈥淭exas prides itself on being open for business, and yet here we have a law that鈥檚 shutting down a business,鈥 said Katie Kam, CEO and Founder of Bio B-Q. Her Austin-based company aims to make lab grown brisket.
鈥淐ultivated meat, in our view, is safer than the conventional meat that is produced in a large scale that鈥檚 on the market right now,鈥 said Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and Founder of Upside Foods.
Lab-grown meat is part of a larger trend in the meat industry towards sustainable meat products that don鈥檛 contribute to climate change. According to the United Nations, 14.5% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are created by livestock farming.
Multiple companies have sprung up in recent years focused on lab-grown meat, including Upside Foods, Vow Foods and Eat Just. The companies make a variety of meat products ranging from egg to quail.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really important for our national security, to be able to put meat on the table from an animal based source,鈥 Dr. Valeti said.
Lab-grown meat is made by placing protein cells in a vat where they reproduce.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e flooding around, they鈥檙e growing, we harvest them, and we have the cell mass, that we can then turn into a range of different products,鈥 said CEO and Co-Founder of Vow Food, George Peppou, to NewsNation affiliate KXAN in 2023.
Questions about safety of lab grown meat were brought up at the committee hearings in March. 鈥淏ecause these products are so new, there has been no long term research,鈥 Polk said.
鈥淭here is no slaughterhouse, there is no poop, there is no skin, guts, there鈥檚 no antibiotics used. We don鈥檛 have pesticides or herbicides that are on the grass that an animal is eating. We do not have plastics or microplastics. So in all of these things, cultivated meat is a step above in terms of production quality, cleanliness and safety,鈥 Dr. Valeti said.
Right now, cultured or lab grown meat is only legal in Singapore and parts of the United States. Israel and the Netherlands have relaxed some restrictions on the product.