America is poised to lead the world in food innovation – but Alabama and several other states have introduced legislation to subject the sale of cultivated meat and seafood products to criminal prosecution.
Criminalizing this innovation endangers American national security in profound ways. Alabama is currently considering a bill that would subject the sale of these products to criminal penalties.
Cultivated meat — beef, chicken, pork, duck, and seafood grown from animal cells — is certainly the stuff of science fiction. This technology must be safe for us to eat. That is why the US Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration scrutinized these products for the better part of a decade before approving two companies to sell cultivated chicken last year.
Advocates for these bans now say that they are trying to protect the ranchers and farmers bringing meat to American tables today from competition.
We need to support America’s farmers and ranchers, but criminalizing innovation is the wrong way to do it.
I became involved in alternative proteins motivated by working in national security. As a Foreign Service Officer, I volunteered to serve alongside our troops on some of the most dangerous assignments in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I have seen firsthand the instability that comes from countries lacking enough arable land and clean water to feed a growing population.
To address this crisis we need to place good bets on new technology.
Countries around the world – America’s allies and rivals alike – have recognized the link between food innovation and national security. China has included cultivated meat in its most recent five-year agricultural plan. Israel, Japan, Singapore, and gulf countries (all of which significantly depend on imported food) have embraced cultivated meat and seafood as a way to safeguard their ability to feed their citizens.
Unlike chicken and beef production where the United States is the 2nd largest exporter globally, 70-85% of the US seafood supply is imported.
Far from protecting American jobs, banning cultivated seafood in the United States deepens our country’s dependence on foreign imports, largely from China.
Not only do these state bans boost China’s standing in the race to develop the food technology of tomorrow, but they are creating Chinese jobs at the expense of small American businesses like Wildtype.
Proponents of these bills have argued that they should be banned because we cannot know that the products are safe.
This is nonsense. In Wildtype’s safety submissions to FDA, we have shown that bacterial and heavy metal levels are as much as ten thousand times lower than conventional seafood. Furthermore, we know that certain products on the market will kill you (hello cigarettes), but no state in the union is pushing legislation to ban the sale of these products.
For those concerned about new sources of animal protein displacing jobs, let’s remember that salmon farming was perceived as a similar threat when it became an established industry in the 1980s and 1990s. What happened? Between 1988 and 1997, wild salmon catches worldwide actually increased by 27 percent.
Even if twenty companies in the cultivated meat and seafood industry each miraculously raised the $200 million+ required to build an industrial-scale cultivated meat/seafood production facility and operated at maximum efficiency, the total cultivated meat/seafood output would be less 0.08% of global meat and seafood consumption.
The principle of individual liberty and a free-market economy are central tenets of our identity as Americans. In a free market, consumers should decide what products succeed or fail.
It’s up to companies like Wildtype to make products that are delicious, nutritious, and affordable enough to convince consumers to give us a try over their favorite wild-caught salmon. This is no small feat.
Legislators should weigh the short-sighted political benefits these bans would bring against the catastrophic consequences of stripping their citizens of freedom of choice, especially when it comes to feeding their families.
About the author:
Justin Kolbeck is co-founder & CEO of Wildtype, an American cultivated seafood producer, and a former U.S. State Department Foreign Service Officer, where his postings included Afghanistan (Provincial Reconstruction Team, Paktika) and Peshawar, Pakistan.