Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned lab-grown meat, saying he will “save our beef” from the “global elite” and its “authoritarian plans”.
“Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs,” Mr DeSantis said in a statement.
The first-in-the-nation law prohibits anyone from selling or distributing lab-grown meat in Florida.
Similar efforts are under way in Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee.
Lab-grown or “cultivated” meat was first cleared for consumption in the US in 2022.
The process of making cultivated meat involves extracting cells from an animal, which are then fed with nutrients such as proteins, sugars and fats. The end product is genetically indistinguishable from traditionally produced meat.
Studies have suggested that eating cultivated meat can cut carbon emissions and water usage, and free up land for nature, compared to eating traditionally produced meat.
Ah, the ‘global elite,’ who they also call ‘globalists.’ And who are they talking about?
The term is now frequently used as a pejorative by far-right movements and conspiracy theorists, as in the New World Order conspiracy theory;[3] it is associated with antisemitism, as antisemites frequently appropriate the term globalist to refer to Jews.[3][4][5]
Remember, that’s just a wild conspiracy. Criticizing the Israeli government’s genocide is antisemitic though…
The way you’ve phrased this sounds like you think there really is a Jewish cabal that runs the world and is ruining it.
I apologize if you thought I was implying that. I am in no way agreeing that there is a “Deep State” or anything to that effect. I was trying to draw criticism to DeSantis’ use of the word Globalists, which does have antisemitic overtones, while the House just passed a bill that could lead to criticism of Israel in any way would count as antisemitism.
Sarcasm on the internet is hard to convey.
I think the term has no real meaning to them anymore. It’s just another term thrown at anything they don’t like, like “woke” or whatever. I’m sure some definitely use it deliberately, but I think most lack the directed prejudice and just use it lazily as a catch-all for “liberal”.
That’s the whole point of obfuscating it in the first place. If you come out and say “Jews who control the world want to force everyone to eat bugs”, you sound like an idiot. So, you give it a candy coating to make it go down better, and hope a certain percentage will eventually “do their own research” and come to your desired conclusion.
It’s the most strategically sound method you can come up with to perpetuate the conspiracy theories in the modern day. It’s similar to how cults don’t start the recruitment process by walking up to you and going “Hey, want to join a cult?”
The late, legendarily brutal campaign consultant Lee Atwater explains how Republicans can win the vote of racists without sounding racist themselves:
You start out in 1954 by saying, “N*****, n*****, n*****.” By 1968 you can’t say “n*****”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N*****, n*****.”
It’s part of the “other,” which is used to create fear that drives support for their politicians.
Right wing leaders and their propagandists can’t be too specific with concepts because large parts of them are contrived. They don’t need to be specific because their target audience is people who think and make decisions more with emotions, which doesn’t require clear concepts and terms, than reason.
“The left” absolutely does it too, although it’s not as bad.
Whatever they are saying is just a standin for a slur. Look at the tweet about “Baltimore’s DEI mayor” and too immediately see that they are just using CRT, woke, gender ideology, DEI, elite, or whatever new term comes into Vogue next month as a stand in for whatever applicable slur.
They don’t just turn terms into slurs to rally the morons, they do it to attack the ideological base of their opponents.
“Globalist” became a dogwhistle for Jewish people because fascists pretended to think socialism, which inherently rejects nationalism or loses all meaning, was a Jewish conspiracy. By turning it into a meaningless slur they’re not just turning their base against the idea, they’re making their opponents react to its use as slur.
As it happens, neoliberalism ended up having a different kind of globalist goal, so they got a free 2 for 1 slur against their ideological enemies even though the end goals are wildly different. And, obviously, fascists don’t see the need to explain how the “Jewish conspiracy” is behind both socialism and neoliberalism.
It also just turns people against the concept without understanding what it actually is.
Thus me just last week having to argue with a “socialist” social democrat about how “globalism” isn’t a dogwhistle on an ideological level.
The ‘global elite’ wouldn’t touch lab grown meat. This stuff is meant to sustain the poor when cow meat production becomes cost prohibitive (it already is without government subsidies).
That’s ridiculous. Every scientist I have ever seen involved in this field says it is about getting people to give up or at least eat less meat for the good of the planet.
Our points don’t disagree. Point #1 The goal is food production in order to sustain a growing population. Current production is ecologically and economically unsustainable. Point #2 The “global elite” wouldn’t be caught dead eating lab grown meat unless they are doing a promo for the “lab grown meat” company.
I can’t wait for lab grown meat to become widely available (in my state at least). I think it’s really cool. Being able to eat real meat without harming animals sounds so futuristic. It’s one piece of future technology that I can actually get behind.
Agreed. I think the environmental impact is much lower as well, which is basically a win/win if prices can compete with farmed animals.
I’m absolutely not sold on the lower ecological footprint, the same hubub was made about vertical farming and that was either highly expensive or came with a gigantic footprint.
But I sure hope it pans out.
Vertical farm viability scales almost inversely with electricity costs. And the latter trends lower and lower as time goes by. So I’m pretty confident that it’s coming.
Yeah me too.
Even if you don’t care about animals, synthetic will be cheaper, tastier, healthier, and better for the environment.
Honestly the only thing not to like about it is that you don’t like the idea.
I dream of lab-grown bacon. Each piece an identical example of bacon perfection: just the right thickness and ratio of meat to fat.
A law mandating Floridians pay more for their food than any other U.S.citizen. Yeah, I’m sure that won’t be overturned.
The thing I never got about the plant based burger patties is they try to make it taste like a scrappy beef patty instead of making ot taste good in its own flavor. Like why can’t it just be its own thing like how a chicken sandwich is different than a beef burger
The idea is that you can quickly and easily replicate a flavor you’re used to and remove the animal element. You can also buy it and have a good idea what it will taste like.
But it’s not healthy! Yeah no kidding, when I eat a burger it’s generally not for the health benefits.
Are you referring to plant-based burgers? That would definitely apply to Beyond and Impossible as they add way too much coconut oil, and salt. In other words they’re unhealthy for some of the same reasons animal flesh is unhealthy, although they are still less harmful than their animal counterparts just by lacking the animal proteins.
I mean, you’re basically describing a black bean burger. The real question is why we still can’t buy like, pre-packaged black bean burger mix or ready made patties easily.
You can, at least in my local grocery stores. Black bean burger patties have been available in the frozen section for years.
They’re a bit of a rip off because they’re way more expensive than a can of beans + spices, and probably an order of magnitude more expensive than dry beans + spices, but they’re usually around the same price as the premade beef patties, by weight.
It depends how they make them. Some plant based burgers are just made with scraps from soy milk production, look like expired meat and taste like polystyrene or worse while the impossible burger it’s difficult to distinguish with a blind test: the flavor, the texture and the appearance are extremely similar. They even have the fake blood in the middle
One thing people are afraid of though is being “duped”. In a world where everyone is afraid of deception, they want all the products they consume to be clearly labeled. My partner thinks that they’ve been steadily replacing all meat with lab-grown and just not telling anyone and not labeling the packaging. Like, one day she stopped buying the chicken breasts she’d normally get, saying that “it doesn’t taste right. It doesn’t taste how it did pre-pandemic. They’ve done something to it.”
I mean I have a Christian friend that thinks they have spoken with a spirit and won’t microwave things because of “radiation.” They’re clearly insane just like your partner. The thing is I would never date them.
Conservative “Free Market Values” at play
Do his supporters really believe hes an “every man” like them, and not literally one of the “global elite”?
What? Its nothing to do with banning meat - its the message and reason as to why its being banned.
“Ban lab meat because the global elite!” vs “Ban lab meat to support farmers”.
It’s the same line of reasoning with different excuses; I don’t like it so no one should have it.
“To fight authoritarianism, the government is going to restrict your dietary choices!”
- Don Insantis
