Pennsylvania Senate Committee Advances Lab-Grown Meat Ban After Bartolotta Push

A Pennsylvania Senate committee voted Wednesday to advance a ban on lab-grown meat and poultry, sending Sen. Camera Bartolotta's farmer-protection bill to the full chamber.

The Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee approved Senate Bill 1422, which would prohibit the manufacture and sale of lab-grown meat and poultry in Pennsylvania, according to a release from Bartolotta's office. The 46th District Republican said the state should be "protecting and supporting the hardworking men and women who put food on our tables."

Bartolotta pointed to generations of Pennsylvania families who have raised livestock and produced high-quality protein. She argued the state should not build a marketplace that lets laboratory products displace their livelihoods and heritage. The bill is aimed at shielding the state's agricultural industry from a growing push to replace traditionally raised meat with products grown in labs, the release said.

Bartolotta says the choice is simple: back the people who raise the food on Pennsylvania tables, or clear the way for a product built to compete with them. The committee's vote suggests that argument found a receptive audience among her colleagues on the panel that oversees farm policy.

If SB 1422 becomes law, Pennsylvania would join seven other states that have enacted laws restricting the manufacture, sale and distribution of cultivated meat products, though those laws vary in scope. The vote puts Harrisburg on a path toward joining a growing list of states that have moved against cultivated meat.

The bill now heads to the full Senate. The release did not include a vote tally or a floor date. Whether Republican leaders schedule a vote, and whether the measure can then clear the House and reach Gov. Josh Shapiro's desk, will determine if Pennsylvania's farmers get the protection Bartolotta is promising.