Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) believes those in support of lab-grown meat are part of a “pro-bio slop caucus,” according to a tweet he posted on Wednesday. For his part, Fetterman says he’s in “the pro-ribeye one” instead.
Fetterman’s comments come shortly after a law banning lab grown meat was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) earlier this month.
The law has been heralded by DeSantis as a counterattack against perceived efforts by global elites to force the public to eat bugs. A slick graphic DeSantis posted about the law on X at the beginning of the month riffed on the logo designed for the World Economic Forum, an international forum which has analyzed and advocated for expanding the lab-grown meat market in order to combat climate change.
“Florida is punching back at the World Economic Forum’s plan to force the world to eat fake meat and bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals,” DeSantis’ graphic read, which crows about keeping lab grown meat out of Florida and claims to “prioritize … Florida’s farmers and ranchers over the globalist agenda.”
And ever since DeSantis signed the law, Fetterman’s been in his corner slugging it out on the side of home-grown American cattle.
Fetterman’s one-two combos against lab-grown meats have included tweets declaring that he’s co-signing “Crash-and-Burn Ron” on the fake steak debate, as much as it “pains me deeply to agree.”
“As a member of @SenateAgDems and as some dude who would never serve that slop to my kids, I stand with our American ranchers and farmers. 🇺🇸”
Fetterman also posted an image of a gleaming stainless steel lab meat machine, calling it a “thing,” insinuating that the cell grown meat cultivation process is a Frankenstein-style fabrication.
Fetterman was quickly mocked online about the post, with people pointing out that similar looking machines process everything from beer, milk, and coffee, to juice and cheese.
Off of social media, Fetterman has backed bills in Congress which would ban plant-based egg and dairy outfits from describing their products as egg or dairy, as well as curtailing how plant-based meat companies can characterize their products on their labels, according to a Vox round-up of Fetterman’s imitation veal vendetta.
That article, detailing Fetterman’s “beef with no-kill meat,” prompted Fetterman’s latest broadside, who called his position “[t]he beauty of democracy.”
But not everybody thought staking out the angle was worth it, with some posters arguing that banning the cultivated meat is an anti-free-market position.
“No one is taking away your rib eye,” posted @GarrettSativa. “Let the free market embrace synthesized meat if it wants to.”
“‘I don’t like it, so it should be banned’ is a crazy take from a United States Senator,” added @KerryLVaughan. “It’s really simple. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it.”
Others were more clear about how far they were going to listen to Fetterman’s suggestions.
“ok but if I want to eat bio slop,” posted @nykyt0sha. “why are you trying to stop me?”
Despite Fetterman’s concerns, the vast majority of Americans already appear uninterested in consuming lab-grown meat. In a poll conducted last year by the Associated Press, only 18% of U.S. adults said they were extremely or very likely to try such meat.
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