Don’t Call It ‘Meat,’ States Say

Farm states are taking action to help protect their livestock and meat industries against the rise of fake meat products. Nebraska lawmakers will consider a bill this year that would make it a crime to advertise or sell any product “as meat that is not derived from poultry or livestock.” Last year Missouri became the first state to regulate the term “meat” on product labels, action that has already spurred a lawsuit that will likely be a drawn-out battle between traditional meat groups and alternative meat producers. Lawmakers in Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming are also considering bills aimed at meat alternatives. The debate centers on what alternative protein products should be allowed to be named. Livestock producers oppose allowing those alternative products to be named “meat.” In Missouri, Turtle Island Foods, which manufactures Tofurky, and the Good Food Institute, have filed for a preliminary injunction with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri to prevent the state from enforcing its new law while the case is ongoing. The law went into effect Jan. 1, prohibiting the use of the term “meat” for any product not harvested from livestock. Lawyers for both sides have petitioned for extensions to respond to previous filings, and the court schedule includes a deadline of May 31 for discovery, and a deadline for all motions including those for summary judgement of June 28, 2019. In Nebraska, lawmakers will consider defining meat as “any edible portion of any livestock or poultry, carcass or part thereof” and excluding “lab-grown or insect or plant-based food products.” Supporters of alternative proteins often use the term “clean meat” to promote their products, language livestock groups strongly oppose...MORE