Nebraska Governor Signs Order Banning State Agencies From Procuring Lab-Grown Meat

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, signed an executive order on Thursday barring state agencies from procuring lab-grown meat—or meat products that are developed from animal cells.
Pillen announced the new guidelines alongside the Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA), saying they aim to protect the state’s agriculture industry and consumers from lab-grown meat.
In addition, Pillen instructed the NDA to initiate a rule-making process to ensure lab-grown meat products sold in stores are properly labeled and not placed next to natural meat on store shelves.
“Nebraska consumers want to know and deserve to know that what they are purchasing is safe, wholesome meat, and not a lab grown product,” NDA Director Sherry Vinton stated.
Pillen’s office stated that a public hearing on the draft regulations has been scheduled for Oct. 8. The governor also announced that he would work on drafting legislation to ban lab-grown meat in Nebraska during the upcoming legislative session.
Lab-grown meat is created in a laboratory by taking stem cells from an animal and placing them in tanks called bioreactors full of a culture medium that enables them to multiply.
Producers extract animal cells, typically muscle cells, from living animals via biopsy, a painful procedure that requires the use of large needles. Growing those animal cells requires a growth medium.