HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – “Picture, if you will, on the grill a nice, juicy burger.”
That’s Republican state Representative Alan Redfield from Livingston, the sponsor of the “Real Meat Act,” which he says was written to address a rising problem.
“The picture another thing on the grill that came from a petri dish.”
Time Pierce with the UM Legislative News Service reports, House Bill 327 adds a definition for a cell-cultured edible product into the Montana code and redefines hamburger and ground beef to come “entirely” from the edible flesh of a slaughtered animal.
Zuri Moreno with the ACLU opposed the bill when it was in committee in February. The bill doesn’t allow cell-cultured products to be labeled as meat, and Moreno says that distinction encroaches on First Amendment rights for free commercial speech.
“These restrictions on speech are neither necessary nor appropriate to prevent consumer deception. This bill is an unconstitutional solution in search of a problem.”
The bill has passed both the House and the Senate and the House voted 92-to-6 this week to adopt Senate amendments that clean up language in the bill.
