Texas Becomes Seventh State to Ban Lab-Grown Meat

Texas has become the seventh state in the nation to ban the sale and production of lab-grown meat.

The legislation, signed by Governor Greg Abbott, is set to take effect on Sept. 1. The measure will ban the sale of cell-cultured protein products for human consumption across the Lone Star State for two years.

“This ban is a massive win for Texas ranchers, producers, and consumers,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. “Texans have a God-given right to know what’s on their plate, and for millions of Texans, it better come from a pasture, not a lab. It’s plain cowboy logic that we must safeguard our real, authentic meat industry from synthetic alternatives.”

SB 261, authored by Senator Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) and sponsored by Rep. Stan Gerdes, mandates that only beef and other animal proteins raised with natural and traditional methods are sold to consumers.

“I tip my hat to Senator Perry, the Texas legislature and Governor Abbott for taking a bold stand for our ranching families,” Miller said. “Texans feed the world with real food from real animals raised by real people. Not only that, but Texas raises the best beef and poultry products in the world. Lab-grown meat just doesn’t belong in Texas, and now, it doesn’t have a place on our tables.”

The Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association also applauded the legislation.

“Ranchers across Texas work tirelessly to raise healthy cattle and produce high-quality beef,” said Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association President Carl Ray Polk Jr. “Our association is grateful for those legislators who voted in support of this legislation and understood the core of this bill, to protect our consumers, the beef industry and animal agriculture.”

Proponents of cultivated meat have welcomed it as a new way to produce proteins without having a negative impact on the environment. At the end of 2020, Singapore was the first country to approve it. The U.S. followed in 2023, and Israel in 2024, while Brazil weighs the pros and cons and opposition grows in the EU.

Last year, the Bezos Earth Fund awarded NC State $30 million over five years to create a biomanufacturing hub for dietary proteins and establish a network of open-access research and development centers focused on sustainable protein alternatives, such as lab-grown meat, and expanding consumer choices.

The UN reported in 2023 that emerging novel alternatives to animal products such as meat and dairy may contribute to significantly reducing the environmental footprint of the current global food system, particularly in high- and middle-income countries.

“New food alternatives will offer a broader spectrum of consumer choices,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, when the report was released. “Further, such alternatives can also lessen the pressures on agricultural lands and reduce emissions, thereby helping us address the triple planetary crisis — the crisis of climate change, the crisis of biodiversity and nature loss, the crisis of pollution and waste — as well as address the health and environmental consequences of the animal agriculture industry. More government support, as well as open and transparent research, can help unlock the potential of these new technologies for some countries.”  

Texas joins Nebraska, Indiana, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Montana in passing legislation against lab-grown meat.