Tanks, where cultivated chicken is made, are seen at the Eat Just office on July 27, 2023 in Alameda, California, a month after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) authorized two California-based companies, Upside Foods and Good Meat, to sell chicken grown from cells in a lab. Cell-cultivated or lab-grown meat is made by feeding nutrients to animal cells in stainless steel tanks. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA — A bill mandating the clear labeling of lab-grown food sold in South Carolina advanced Thursday to the Senate floor.
The bill makes it illegal to sell a “cell-cultivated food product” as real beef, poultry, fish, shrimp or any other animal protein it “may resemble.” The product’s origins must be “conspicuously labeled on the front of the package,” reads the legislation approved unanimously by the Senate agriculture committee.
“We’re not banning it. We just want people to know what they are buying,” said Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Boiling Springs, a co-sponsor and chairman of the panel that first considered the bill Wednesday.
Cell-cultivated food is produced by taking cells from an animal, then giving it vitamins and sugars to grow into edible protein that’s similar in taste and nutritional value.
The legislation authored by Senate Agriculture Chairman Wes Climer would expand on a five-year-old state law that says cell-cultivated food can’t be labeled as “meat” or “clean meat.”
Food that’s not born and raised as an animal isn’t real meat, said Sen. Everett Stubbs, R-Rock Hill.
He doesn’t even want it to be called cultivated chicken, for example.
“At some point a chicken walks and clucks and does the things that chickens do,” said the freshman senator. “Quite frankly, I have a problem with this product being labeled chicken.”
Travis Mitchell, director of the South Carolina Cattlemen’s Association, agreed.
“When we refer to beef as cattle producers, that means it is a living, breathing animal raised on farms all across this state, all across this country,” he said.
A lobbyist for the Washington-based nonprofit that advocates for alternative proteins said the industry’s so new, the products aren’t available in South Carolina grocery stores yet.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture cleared two California-based companies in 2023 to sell cultivated food products. However, they’re not yet widely available, said Tamar Lieberman of the Good Food Institute, which calls the protein “real animal meat made without animals.”
She contends the products’ labeling already ensures people with diet, allergy or religious restrictions don’t mistakenly eat the product.
But she did, however, agree with Kimbrell on one thing: Cultivated meat is more expensive than farm-raised meat.
It can cost four times more than regular meat or poultry, Kimbrell said.
“Some people, I think, probably assume because of that it might be healthier, organic and grass fed,” said the Spartanburg County Republican. “It’s none of that. It’s grown in a lab.”
Under existing state law, mislabeling the products is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to a year in prison. Climer’s bill specifies that each package not clearly labeled is a separate offense.
A similar bill by Climer passed the Senate unanimously last April but died with session’s end a month later without a vote in the House.
South Carolina’s farmers support the bill.
Agriculture is a $25 billion industry in South Carolina, with poultry representing the largest sector among meats, said Clinton Leach, an assistant commissioner at the state Department of Agriculture.
“We want to make sure that our agriculture industry continues to thrive,” he said. “Beef and poultry and seafood producers and processors play an important role in the fabric of our industry.”
Iowa and West Virginia already require similar labeling. Legislators in South Dakota are considering a similar bill. Alabama and Florida have banned lab-grown food products, while Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said last week he hopes to join them soon.
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