Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has banned lab-grown meat, saying he will “save our beef” from the “global elite” and its “authoritarian plans”.

“Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs,” Mr DeSantis said in a statement.

The first-in-the-nation law prohibits anyone from selling or distributing lab-grown meat in Florida.

Similar efforts are under way in Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee.

Lab-grown or “cultivated” meat was first cleared for consumption in the US in 2022.

The process of making cultivated meat involves extracting cells from an animal, which are then fed with nutrients such as proteins, sugars and fats. The end product is genetically indistinguishable from traditionally produced meat.

Studies have suggested that eating cultivated meat can cut carbon emissions and water usage, and free up land for nature, compared to eating traditionally produced meat.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    184
    ·
    8 months ago

    Ah, the ‘global elite,’ who they also call ‘globalists.’ And who are they talking about?

    The term is now frequently used as a pejorative by far-right movements and conspiracy theorists, as in the New World Order conspiracy theory;[3] it is associated with antisemitism, as antisemites frequently appropriate the term globalist to refer to Jews.[3][4][5]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalism

    • meleecrits@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      36
      ·
      8 months ago

      Remember, that’s just a wild conspiracy. Criticizing the Israeli government’s genocide is antisemitic though…

      • Ech@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        8 months ago

        The way you’ve phrased this sounds like you think there really is a Jewish cabal that runs the world and is ruining it.

        • meleecrits@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          8 months ago

          I apologize if you thought I was implying that. I am in no way agreeing that there is a “Deep State” or anything to that effect. I was trying to draw criticism to DeSantis’ use of the word Globalists, which does have antisemitic overtones, while the House just passed a bill that could lead to criticism of Israel in any way would count as antisemitism.

          Sarcasm on the internet is hard to convey.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      8 months ago

      I think the term has no real meaning to them anymore. It’s just another term thrown at anything they don’t like, like “woke” or whatever. I’m sure some definitely use it deliberately, but I think most lack the directed prejudice and just use it lazily as a catch-all for “liberal”.

      • Carrolade@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        8 months ago

        That’s the whole point of obfuscating it in the first place. If you come out and say “Jews who control the world want to force everyone to eat bugs”, you sound like an idiot. So, you give it a candy coating to make it go down better, and hope a certain percentage will eventually “do their own research” and come to your desired conclusion.

        It’s the most strategically sound method you can come up with to perpetuate the conspiracy theories in the modern day. It’s similar to how cults don’t start the recruitment process by walking up to you and going “Hey, want to join a cult?”

        • wanderer@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          ·
          8 months ago

          The late, legendarily brutal campaign consultant Lee Atwater explains how Republicans can win the vote of racists without sounding racist themselves:
          You start out in 1954 by saying, “N*****, n*****, n*****.” By 1968 you can’t say “n*****”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N*****, n*****.”

          https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/

      • BakerBagel@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        8 months ago

        Whatever they are saying is just a standin for a slur. Look at the tweet about “Baltimore’s DEI mayor” and too immediately see that they are just using CRT, woke, gender ideology, DEI, elite, or whatever new term comes into Vogue next month as a stand in for whatever applicable slur.

        • FirstCircle@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          8 months ago

          whatever new term comes into Vogue

          These people are reading Vogue? That’s an interesting twist. I wouldn’t have thought the average Fascist would be all that into fashion. Fashists?

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        They don’t just turn terms into slurs to rally the morons, they do it to attack the ideological base of their opponents.

        “Globalist” became a dogwhistle for Jewish people because fascists pretended to think socialism, which inherently rejects nationalism or loses all meaning, was a Jewish conspiracy. By turning it into a meaningless slur they’re not just turning their base against the idea, they’re making their opponents react to its use as slur.

        As it happens, neoliberalism ended up having a different kind of globalist goal, so they got a free 2 for 1 slur against their ideological enemies even though the end goals are wildly different. And, obviously, fascists don’t see the need to explain how the “Jewish conspiracy” is behind both socialism and neoliberalism.

        It also just turns people against the concept without understanding what it actually is.

        Thus me just last week having to argue with a “socialist” social democrat about how “globalism” isn’t a dogwhistle on an ideological level.

      • fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        8 months ago

        It’s part of the “other,” which is used to create fear that drives support for their politicians.

        Right wing leaders and their propagandists can’t be too specific with concepts because large parts of them are contrived. They don’t need to be specific because their target audience is people who think and make decisions more with emotions, which doesn’t require clear concepts and terms, than reason.

        “The left” absolutely does it too, although it’s not as bad.

      • monsterlynn@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        8 months ago

        Definitely some of them use it that way. It’s clever in a thuggish way because the implication is that the base is just regular, normal folks.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      8 months ago

      Also the Harvard/Yale grad complaining about “elites”. Tell me again who gets into those schools? The run-of-the-mill pablum?

    • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      8 months ago

      The ‘global elite’ wouldn’t touch lab grown meat. This stuff is meant to sustain the poor when cow meat production becomes cost prohibitive (it already is without government subsidies).

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        8 months ago

        That’s ridiculous. Every scientist I have ever seen involved in this field says it is about getting people to give up or at least eat less meat for the good of the planet.

        • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          8 months ago

          Our points don’t disagree. Point #1 The goal is food production in order to sustain a growing population. Current production is ecologically and economically unsustainable. Point #2 The “global elite” wouldn’t be caught dead eating lab grown meat unless they are doing a promo for the “lab grown meat” company.

          • Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            8 months ago

            Personally, I imagine the global elite to be Cypher, enjoying a succulent steak while selling out the rest of humanity to robots.