CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — 82-year-old Bob Boyce has been in the meat business for nearly 40 years.
He and his wife operate Lil' Ponderosa Beef, a 180-acre property that raises purebred Angus stock on an all-natural diet.
“It was kind of a natural thing that once I had land and grass I was going to have at least a couple of cows for my own beef consumption,” Boyce said.
His beef is backed by Beef Quality Assurance, a nationally coordinated and state-implemented program that provides “best practices” to farmers and ranchers.
Boyce believes real meat is a standard that lab-grown meat made from animal cells can’t match.
He also believes there's no market for lab-grown meat products.
“We know that you can’t match the protein in a lab that your immune system works within the human body, and they’re trying to synthesize that and haven’t been successful, and we know it’s going to have to have preservatives to keep it.”
In June 2023, the United States Department of Agriculture approved the sale of lab-grown meat through two companies in California.
Although not available in U.S. grocery stores, state leader Republican representative Tina Pickett has proposed legislation to ban such products before they reach Pennsylvania.
“We’re not a time in our evolution where we need fake meat grown from a petri dish,” Boyce said.
House Bill 2441 was introduced to the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee in June of this year.
The bill has been sitting stagnant since.
Republican chair for the committee, Dan Moul, supports the bill but says it will not likely move forward this session due to timing.
Pickett was not available for an interview with FOX43 but sent the following statement:
“Our goal with this legislation is to put Pennsylvania in a position to not let the market get ahead of food safety. It would also allow the Commonwealth’s No. 1 industry – agriculture – to have more of a say in the development of lab-grown meat products. I plan to re-introduce the bill in the upcoming session and am hopeful it gets the consideration it deserves due to the potential impact these products have for consumers and our agricultural economy.”
“Ban it, so far as I’m concerned because you’ll save the people a lot of wasted money pursuing what I think is a losing proposition," said Boyce.
Florida and Alabama have already banned the sale of lab-grown meats in the state.
FOX43 also reached out to the Democratic chair for the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee and has not heard back at this time.