A new Missouri law says don’t call it meat if it doesn’t come from livestock or poultry.
The state law that went into effect Tuesday prohibits food companies from marketing products that are not “derived from harvested production livestock or poultry” as meat. Violators could receive a fine of up to $1,000 and spend up to a year in jail.
The law would apply to meat substitutes such as soy-based, plant-based meat, which have become increasingly popular in recent years. The law also includes “clean” meat, which is produced by growing and multiplying cells in a lab and is close to hitting the shelves of grocery stores.
The new measure is drawing backlash from a many different organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Good Food Institute and the company that produces Tofurky. The groups filed a legal challenge in federal court saying the state law attempts to “stifle the growing grocery category of plant-based meat.”
Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, thinks the bill unfairly benefits the meat industry while silencing alternative producers. But to the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, which supported the bill, it’s a way of not standing for alternatives being “marketed as something it’s not.”
By: Maytinee Kramer
