In a striking example of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing, eleven Republican lawmakers are concerned over advances in agricultural biotechnology by China. In a letter dated September 26th, Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) led nine colleagues to request that the Office of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence conduct an analysis and provide Congress with recommendations.
The issue of concern is that China might secure a dominant position in the global protein supply. They raise the issue of “recent Chinese activity in the innovative protein market most notably by the inclusion of cultivated meat research and development in a 5-year agricultural plan”.
Aren’t these the same legislators who are passing laws banning the sale of cultivated meat in predominantly “beef-producing states”? The same group that torpedoed Department of Defense funding for research on cultivated meat?
It seems that on the one hand cultured meat is taboo and yet these lawmakers are concerned over China, a commercial adversary, (except where Walmart and Target shelves are concerned), developing cultivated meat and “ceding American leadership in the global innovative protein market and forfeiting food security for the United States and its allies”.