Senators rewrite bill to restrict research of meat substitutes

Published by editor on Wed, 02/21/2024 - 9:46am

By:

Jared Strong

Iowa Capital Dispatch

A bill that was amended in the Iowa Senate on Thursday would now prohibit the state’s regent universities from researching “manufactured protein products.”

Senate Study Bill 3162, which pertains to meat labeling, had previously received early bipartisan support as a way to help consumers distinguish between food that contains meat or meat substitutes, but it was rewritten Thursday by Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee.

A copy of the amended bill was not immediately publicly available, but Sen. Dawn Driscoll, R-Williamsburg, said in the committee meeting that the new version “prohibits the Board of Regents from conducting research into the production or use of manufactured protein products.”

Meat look-alikes that are derived from cell cultivations, insects or plants also cannot be labeled as beef, chicken, goat, lamb, pork, sheep or turkey, the bill says, and wrongly labeled and “cell-cultivated products” should not be purchased by schools.

“Lab grown products are made in a petri dish and are not the same as the high-quality beef, pork, poultry, goat, lamb raised by hardworking Iowa farm families,” Driscoll said. “The taxpayer dollars should not be used to support these products over the real meat raised on Iowa farms.”

Democrats of the committee were incensed by the abrupt changes to a bill they previously supported.

“The clarity of labeling — wanting to make sure people understand when they’re getting a plant-based product versus an actual beef or pork product — those things are important,” said Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines. “But when we go a step further, and we do it right before a committee meets, and we restrict research, all of a sudden we’re getting way, way, way far away from the original point of this legislation.”

Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, said the amended bill improperly favors one type of Iowa agriculture — livestock production — over another type — soybean production, which is a source of protein for meat substitutes.

“I don’t understand what the beef industry’s worried about, because I don’t know anybody who wants to grill soy burger when they have people over,” Dotzler said. “Iowans and people across this country love beef. Why are you worried?”