State Rep. Beau Baird Seeks to Protect Farmers, Consumers with Bill Banning ‘Fake Meat’

You’ve heard us talk about “cultivated meat” or “lab-grown meat,” but let’s call it what it really is: FAKE MEAT!

State Rep. Beau Baird (R-Greencastle) says one of his bills, which passed through the recent legislative session and is on its way to Governor Mike Braun’s desk for his signature, would keep this stuff out of your grocery store.

“This is really about protecting farmers and ranchers, safeguarding our food supply, and ensuring the transparency and safety for our consumers,” says Baird, who wrote House Bill 1425. It bans the sale of fake meat in Indiana for the next two years.

“Farmers have been the backbone of our country for generations and they produce a safe product that people know in the meat supply, and I don’t want a product imitating our safe food supply that the farmers at work so hard to produce,” he says.

Baird also shared with Hoosier Ag Today another concern that he has with fake meat is whether it’s even safe for us to eat.

“The way they grow this, they cultivate a cellular material from an animal and then grow it in a bioreactor inside its own waste. Then, when it comes out, it’s a cellular slurry that is just a slushy,” according to Baird.

“You know, I’ve always been a proponent for new technology and I always like innovation, but not when it comes at the expense of health for our constituency,” he says.

He adds that far more research needs to be done to make sure that “fake meat” doesn’t otherwise cause a greater health risk.

“The cellular material is manipulated in such a way that it doesn’t stop growing while it’s in the bioreactor. My concern is, what happens when that gets in our body? If it is potentially connected to a cancer cell, does that expedite the spread of cancer within our body?” he says.

“The USDA just approved this as a material in 2023, and I just want to know that it’s safe. If it is safe, I want consumers to know what they’re consuming,” says Baird.

In addition to a two year moratorium on the sale of cultivated meat products in Indiana, the legislation also prohibits a person from misbranding a cultivated meat product as a meat product.

If signed into law by Gov. Braun, the ban on the sale of cultivated meat in Indiana would take effect July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2027. After the moratorium ends on July 1, 2028, the bill requires that any cultivated meat product must be clearly labeled as an “IMITATION MEAT PRODUCT” and cannot be misbranded, which means it must be advertised, labeled, and sold in a manner that transparently indicates its cultivated nature.

CLICK HERE to read more about Indiana’s bill to ban the sale of cultivated meat.

CLICK BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today’s radio news story.