Enforcement plan is evidence that Montana is serious about banning lab-grown meat

Montana is one of five states that ban the manufacture and sale of lab-grown meat, and the state is aggressively enforcing its ban.

Beef production is huge in Montana, with 23,800 farms and ranches with an average size of 2,412 acres, making the state’s agricultural sector larger than oil and gas, mining or tourism. Beef cattle are found in every part of the state. Another often cited metric is that Montana has about twice as many beef cattle as its 1.14 million people.

It’s no surprise that Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed House Bill 401 after it flew through the state Legislature. The new law prohibits the manufacture or sale in the state after Oct. 1  of any cultivated meat product. It provides for prison sentences and fines for violators.  Retailers selling lab-grown meat are subject to penalties, and restaurants could lose their licenses. “Misbranding” is also prohibited. 

State Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, was the prime sponsor of the measure, which 70 of his colleagues co-sponsored. The 25-year-old Mitchell said that  by  adopting the ban, Montana would “stand with our cattle ranchers.”

But it’s in the enforcement details that Montana is signaling just how serious it is. Sixteen full time employee positions are created and assigned to polling the ban. For a state that’s careful about spending, that’s a lot of new public employees.

However, the new law, according to its fiscal note, has assignments in the Department of Public Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor and Industry, and the Weights and Measures unit.  Ironically, enforcing the cell-cultured meat ban will not impact the Montana Department of Livestock.

According to the fiscal note, there will be rule-making and technology implementation costs, personal service, and travel costs for inspectors to contact vendors and businesses and to transfer samples to the state laboratory. The fiscal note predicts that a “significant” financial impact will come with the establishment of a genetic testing laboratory, along with the personal service and operating costs to conduct testing.

All totaled the first year fiscal impact to enforce HB491 is estimated to be $38.9 million.

To “stand up” the new program will cost Montana $25,000 for rule-making. Ten of the 16 newly required full-time employees will work in  Weights and Measures to inspect retail food establishments and transport samples back to the lab. Those officials are empowered to issue stop-sale orders and confiscate products. There will also be a Compliance Supervisor, a Laboratory Supervisor, and three laboratory technicians.

The Department of Public Health and Human Services won’t require new personnel, but will have costs associated with communicating with Montana’s 9,300 retail food establishments about the ban.

Indiana’s HB 1425, signed into law on May 6 by Governor Mike Braun, starts a two-year moratorium on the sale and manufacturing of cultivated meat and prohibits labelling the substances as “meat products.”

The moratorium runs from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2027,  Fines  for violating the moratorium top out at a record-setting $10,000.

Montana and Indiana raised the number of states banning lab-grown meat to five.  But the first state, Florida, is being sued by  California’s Upside Foods, a cultivated meat producer. The assigned federal judge says she wants to hear the case. In the meantime, several other states are considering bans and label restrictions.

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