Conversations have been edited for clarity and brevity.

On March 6th, the Florida House of Representatives passed legislation prohibiting the manufacture and sale of cultivated or “lab-grown” meat in Florida. Governor DeSantis is expected to sign the bill, and when he does Florida will become the first state to ban cultivated meat. Other states, including Arizona, New Hampshire, and Alabama are considering similar bans. What is the fight over cultivated meat really about? Is it economics, with one industry lobbying for protection from another? Is it the culture war, pitting red-blooded, carnivorous Americans against effete cosmopolitan environmentalists? Or is this truly a question of safety, as the state government, apparently in conflict with the FDA, has argued? I reached out to a cultivated meat CEO and a Florida GOP Representative, exploring all of this and more.

“The beef industry, specifically the Cattleman’s Association, is behind this,” said Josh March, referring to the push to ban cultivated meat in Florida. March is the CEO of Sci-Fi Foods, a start-up that produces cultivated beef. “It’s straight-up protectionism.”