LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- A California cultivated chicken meat company will be allowed to continue its legal challenge of a Florida law that bans the sale, distribution and manufacturing of meat produced from cultured animal cells, after a federal judge ruled the law may violate the dormant Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

Upside Foods Inc., based in Berkeley, California, sued the state of Florida last summer challenging the state's SB1084.

That lawsuit brought five counts against the law and at the end of last week the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern Florida dismissed four of those, leaving in place the lawsuit's fifth count on the dormant Commerce Clause.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law, touting it as a way to protect Florida farmers.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker said in an order on April 25, 2025, that dormant Commerce Clause issues in the case need to be examined more closely.

"It may ultimately be the case that Florida's cultivated-meat ban does not actually provide a benefit to Florida's in-state conventional meat or agricultural industries, or that cultivated meat does not compete with businesses in those industries," Walker wrote.

"Under the dormant Commerce Clause framework, the burden to prove the ban's validity would now fall on defendants and require them to demonstrate under 'rigorous scrutiny' that Florida's ban both 'serves a legitimate local purpose' and that this purpose could not be served by available nondiscriminatory means."

The dormant Commerce Clause is a legal doctrine that implies states cannot enact laws that unduly burden or discriminate against interstate commerce. It aims to prevent states from creating barriers to the free flow of goods and services across state lines.

Florida, Alabama and Mississippi passed laws prohibiting the manufacture, sale and distribution of cell-cultured meat, while several other states including Arizona, Texas and Tennessee have been considering similar bills.

In September 2024, Nebraska Republican Gov. Jim Pillen signed an executive order implementing rules against lab-grown or cell-cultured meat products to restrict state agencies from buying such products.

The Nebraska Legislature currently continues to work on legislation that would ban lab-grown meat from the state. The Nebraska Farm Bureau is on record as supporting an alternative measure to instead require labeling of such products.

In its original complaint filed in August 2024, Upside Foods said when the state of Florida enacted the law on May 1, 2024, it "did not cite concerns that cultivated meat is less healthy or safe" than conventional meat.

"Instead, Gov. DeSantis announced that Florida was 'fighting back' against the 'authoritarian goals' of the 'global elite,' who he alleged would force consumers to eat cultivated meat," Upside said in the lawsuit.

"The governor also announced that the law was part of his administration's 'focus on investing in our local farmers and ranchers' and an effort to 'save our beef.'"

The company countered in its complaint that it "doesn't want to force anyone to eat cultivated meat" but that Upside "does want the opportunity to distribute its product to willing consumers."

In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and USDA approved the first lab-grown chicken products for sale.

In July 2023, Upside Foods became the first manufacturer of cultivated meat or poultry to sell its products in the U.S.

Before Florida's ban went into effect, according to the lawsuit, Upside Foods started a partnership with a Miami-based chef to distribute cultivated chicken products in the state.

"As a result of the ban," the company said in the complaint, "Upside is enduring ongoing harm in the form of lost revenue, missed business and promotional opportunities, reputational damage and loss of consumer goodwill."

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

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