DeSantis called it "meat grown in a petri dish" – and a federal appeals court just agreed Florida has every right to keep it out.
A California lab-grown chicken startup spent two years in court trying to override Florida law – and Monday, it lost.
Now seven states have banned Frankenmeat entirely, and the company behind the lawsuit is hemorrhaging employees while it still can't sell a single product to a single American consumer.
11th Circuit Slams the Door on Federal Override Argument
The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed Upside Foods Inc. a clean loss Monday, upholding Florida's first-in-the-nation ban on lab-grown meat in a published opinion that drew a clear line between federal and state authority.
Upside Foods – a Berkeley, California startup – had argued that federal meat inspection law should override Florida's SB 1084, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in May 2024.
The company claimed that because the USDA and FDA had already approved its cultivated chicken, Florida couldn't close its borders to the product.
"Because Florida's ban on lab-grown meat does not regulate Upside's ingredients, premises, facilities, or operations, federal law does not preempt SB 1084," wrote Judge Andrew Brasher, a Trump appointee, in the panel's opinion.
https://twitter.com/GregMaddenUSMC/status/2036203897631510693?s=20
Federal law governs how meat is processed inside facilities. Florida's law governs what products can be sold inside Florida.
Those are different things – and the 11th Circuit said so.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson put it plainly: "Another win for Real Food, another loss for 'Frankenmeat.' Lab-grown 'meat' is not proven to be safe enough for consumers, and it is being pushed by a liberal agenda to shut down farms."
Attorney General James Uthmeier celebrated on X, crediting Chief Deputy Solicitor General Jason Muehlhoff for arguing the case on behalf of the state: "Today, 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a Berkeley, CA-based corporation's challenge to our law."
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2036173941429911831?s=20
A California Company Fighting a Losing Battle Everywhere
Upside Foods has raised $608 million in venture capital and has never turned a profit or sold a product in a single American grocery store.
It has backing from the same coastal elites who spent years lecturing Americans about their dietary choices – and it is running out of time.
The company canceled a major Chicago production facility and went through three separate rounds of layoffs in less than a year.
It paused multiple commercial expansion plans – all while paying lawyers to fight Florida in federal court.
Meanwhile, the states lining up against lab-grown meat keep growing.
Alabama and Florida banned it in 2024. Mississippi, Nebraska, Montana, and Indiana followed in 2025.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed his own ban in June 2025. Seven states now have outright prohibitions on manufacturing, selling, or distributing cultivated meat products.
That's not a political trend. That's a wall.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2036170369107955817?s=20
Commissioner Simpson didn't miss the bigger picture: "Food security is a matter of national security. As Florida's Commissioner of Agriculture, I will fight every day to protect a safe, affordable, and abundant food supply."
DeSantis echoed the victory through spokeswoman Molly Best: "Under Governor DeSantis, we will never have lab-grown meat in Florida."
This Was Never About Chicken
The global elite pushing lab-grown meat isn't doing it because they want you to eat better.
They're doing it because they want to own the food supply.
Bill Gates is one of the largest private landowners in America – a man who has spent years telling ordinary people how they should eat and what kind of food system they should accept.
The World Economic Forum has spent years pushing the idea that ordinary people should shift away from conventional meat.
The pitch always sounds the same – sustainability, climate, efficiency – and it always ends the same way: a handful of corporations controlling what billions of people eat, with no farmers, no ranchers, and no choice for you.
Florida saw through it in 2024. The 11th Circuit confirmed it Monday.
RFK Jr.'s MAHA operation at HHS has made clear the federal government isn't rolling out the red carpet for these products either – Kennedy has publicly called lab-grown meat "ultra-processed" and his FDA is tightening the approval pathways that companies like Upside Foods were counting on.
A federal appeals court just upheld the first ban.
The company fighting it is burning through its last reserves of venture capital while it tries to figure out how to sell a product that nobody asked for and nobody wants to eat.
Florida held the line.
The courts agreed.
Real food wins.
Sources:
- Anita Padilla, "Federal court: Florida can ban California lab-grown chicken," Florida's Voice, March 23, 2026.
- "Lab-Grown Meat Bans in 2025: Which States Are Restricting Cultivated Meat?" Duane Morris Government Strategies, April 24, 2025.
- "UPSIDE Foods Restructures Operations Amid Ongoing Workforce Reductions," Cultivated X, March 24, 2025.
- "The Status of Cell-Cultured Meat Regulations," Penn State Center for Agricultural and Shale Law, 2025.
