New Florida resident Jeff Bezos pumped $60 million into making lab-grown meat taste better. Ron DeSantis just banned it from the state

The former presidential hopeful this week signed legislation banning the sale of lab-grown meat in the state of Florida, saying the Sunshine State wants to stop the World Economic Forum’s goal of “forcing the world to eat lab-grown meat and insects.” The WEF in 2021 said bugs might be a way to help the global population feed itself more sustainably and that insect breeding could be helped by AI, which fueled online conspiracy theories.

The move is unusual, given that lab-grown meat isn’t available for sale in the U.S. However, Florida ranks 13th in the U.S. in overall cattle numbers with a total herd size of 886,000 among 15,000 beef producers with total sales of $546 million, according to the Florida Beef Council. Yet the move could be a shot across the bow, as Florida has become a haven for billionaires who often fund and launch food innovations meant to remediate the effects of climate change. One of those is new snowbird Jeff Bezos. Bezos Earth Fund vice chair Lauren Sánchez, Bezos’s fiancée, in March announced a $60 million initial investment into sustainable protein including plant-based, fermented, and cultivated meats. The investment is part of a $1 billion commitment to expanding food production. “We need to feed 10 billion people with healthy, sustainable food throughout this century while protecting our planet. We can do it, and it will require a ton of innovation,” said Sánchez in a statement.

Lab-grown or cultivated meat is different from an Impossible burger and others of its ilk. It’s made by taking meat from animals and replicating the cell structures scientifically, eradicating the need to farm animals. The nonprofit Good Food Institute reports that the cultivated meat industry has grown to include more than 150 companies backed by $2.6 billion in investments with Bezos among those funding the sector.

The Amazon founder announced in November 2023 that he would leave Seattle for Miami, a move that likely saved him more than $140 million thanks to the state’s tax code. He purchased a third mansion in the state this month, a $90 million property on Indian Creek Island, an area of South Florida known as the Billionaire Bunker. He joins Ken Griffin of Citadel and tech giants Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, which have all taken on more office space in Florida. Miami Dolphins owner and real estate developer Stephen Ross, another…