When the first lab-grown chicken was approved for commercial sale in San Francisco on June 21 last year, it looked like the beginning of a food revolution that would transform the way America eats.
Then came the backlash. Within weeks, social media was frothing with outrage about the perils of cultivated meat. Not long after that, the backdoor lobbying by special interests started.
Nine months on, the billion-dollar industry built on “cultivated meat” — the industry’s preferred term for meat grown from the stem cells of living animals — faces a potential doomsday scenario. Politicians across 16 states have passed or are considering legislation that would impose fines of up to $1 million, and even prison time, for anyone who sells, produces or markets it.
