Democrats in the Minnesota Senate voted down an amendment that would have required foods containing bugs or “cell-cultured” products to be labeled as such.
On April 4, the omnibus agriculture policy bill, also known as S.F. 4225, was discussed, amended, and passed by the Minnesota Senate. According to the bill’s author, Sen. Aric Putnam, D-St. Cloud, the “overwhelming majority” of the bill related to policy recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
Before the bill was passed, Sen. Torrey Westrom, R-Alexandria, put forward an amendment that would require food to be properly labeled if it contains either insect products or artificial “cell-cultured” food such as lab-grown meat.
Speaking to his amendment, Westrom said “this just sets forth that if there’s bugs in your food for protein, cricket flour, whatever it is, it needs to be labeled. The consumers need to know. If your meat is cell-cultured and grown in a petri dish, you also need to know. Consumers should have that knowledge as they shop in the stores.”
While Putnam agreed that “consumers should know what they are consuming,” the St. Cloud legislator opposed Westrom’s amendment. In opposing the amendment, Putnam described the issue as a “future problem” and said legislators need to know what fiscal impact the labeling requirement will have before approving it.
“Everybody wants to have consumer awareness of the food that they eat, but some of us want to do it in a thoughtful way,” he said.
Westrom has also introduced the language of the amendment as a stand-alone bill, which is co-sponsored by Putnam. Putnam’s Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development Committee held a hearing on that bill earlier this session.
“One thing that came from that discussion is that currently there is only one space in the entire country that is selling cell-cultivated meat and that was a restaurant in San Francisco that has already stopped doing it,” Putnam said.
Sen. Nathan Wesenberg, R-Little Falls, spoke to the importance of Westrom’s amendment, saying “it’s imperative that these labels be on foods.” The rural state senator warned that mislabeled food could cause severe consequences for those who have allergies and anaphylactic conditions.
Sen. Jim Abeler, a Republican who owns a restaurant in Anoka, called the amendment a “no-brainer.”
“Let’s tell people what’s in their food that some people don’t even consider to be food,” he said. “Just because there’s no money in the bill doesn’t mean we can’t establish a policy.”
Despite the Republican effort to pass the labeling requirements, Westrom’s amendment was ultimately defeated in a 33-34 vote. However, the Senate did adopt an amendment from Sen. Rich Draheim, R-Madison Lake, that will require the Department of Agriculture to “evaluate options for labeling requirements for cell-cultured meat” and report back to the legislature next year. Draheim’s amendment did not address insect products.
“My main concern was the lab-grown meat or the cell-grown meat,” Draheim said. “I heard in testimony from three different companies that are producing lab-grown meat. So I think it’s going to be here sooner than some think.”
Ultimately, the omnibus agriculture policy bill itself was passed by the Minnesota Senate with bipartisan support; 58 senators voting in favor, nine senators voting against. Of the nine senators who opposed the bill, eight were Republicans and one was a Democrat.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
