DeSantis, Cows, & Being Anti-Market
I thought once Ron DeSantis was no longer trying to be president, he would go back to being just the conservative governor who I voted for originally. Was I wrong!
In his latest foray into ridiculousness, he has decided to ban a product that isn’t even on the market to the public yet. He signed a bill forbidding lab grown meat in the state to play to a fringe element of his base. They believe that the “globalists” are attempting to shove Americans to live in pods and eat bugs. This whack-a-do conspiracy theory is a coverup for the real reason for the legislation…which is beef production in the state. Florida is a major player in the cattle industry.
Instead of letting the free market decide, DeSantis wants to short circuit consumers’ choices to make what would ultimately be a futile gesture to the ranching industry. Could cattle ranchers be so afraid of a nascent technology that is still far from replacing even plant-based “Impossible Meat?” How could a guy with his educational pedigree sound so ridiculous. Maybe the ivy league schools he attended really do make ordinary people leftists.
About 25 years ago, my son and daughter were college vegetarians. For Thanksgiving one year, my darling wife went crazy securing a Tofurkey, which is made from soy, to put alongside the real thing on the dinner table. I sampled it. That experience did not make me a vegetarian.
A few years later, my son went back to eating real meat when he saw me devour a tomahawk rib-eye prepared black and blue. He had a couple of bites of my almost raw steak, and he was converted back to being carnivore. My daughter still is a non-meat eater, and we always have a piece of fish for her when she joins us for dinner.
I have never had an “Impossible” burger nor am I tempted to try one. I suspect most Floridians and Americans will be sticking to beef from a pasture-raised cow. But that should be a choice for the consumer to make. Not Ronny DeSantis.
There is nothing unhealthy about cell cultivated meat (though probably not very good tasting). It is presently not available to consumers. There were two high end restaurants in Washington DC and San Francisco that had it on their menus for a short time but removed it. Perhaps the market at work?
The Florida cattle industry is ninth in the nation and produced 862,000 cattle for beef production this year. The Florida Department of Agriculture has stated that the industry is worth $900 million per year. None of that should be ignored. However, one other material factor is that cattle cost about $5 per pound to produce and cell-based meat is $17–23 per pound.
If the governor and legislators really want to protect cattle ranchers, a much more urgent threat is the development of farms and ranches into subdivisions. Apparently, Ron & his legislative posse only want to save ranchers from the make believe and not the real threat.
Don’t get me wrong. I would be just as opposed to preventing a rancher from selling his land to a developer as I am about banning cell-based meat to protect the rancher. In both cases, the government has no business in business. A capitalist-based economy should allow the market to pick winners and losers…not the government.
Sometimes politicians do it because they believe government should dictate economic outcomes. DeSantis does it for the sheer political optics. The outcomes could be the same, but the governor knows he is wrong.
