LANSING, MICH. — Following the suit of several other states, Michigan State Representative Jim DeSana introduced legislation to ban cultivated meat from being sold in the state. At the same time, he introduced a resolution to enshrine the right to hunt in Michigan’s constitution.

“This is about protecting our ranchers and about protecting the integrity of our food supply,” DeSana said. “This is also about protecting your right to provide food for yourself and your family.”

DeSana and his wife operate Shamrock Station, a sheep farm where they raise grassfed lambs on pasture in northern Monroe County, as well as cattle, chickens and Pyrenean Mountain Dogs. He is a member of the Michigan Sheep Producers and the Michigan Cattleman’s Association.

As a producer himself, DeSana emphasizes the importance of getting protein directly from an animal.

“… no, I don’t want lab-grown meat as a substitute for the real thing, and I don’t want to get my protein by eating bugs,” he said. “Let the chickens eat the bugs the way nature intended; we’ll eat the chickens.”

DeSana’s legislation defines “cultivated meat” as “a meat or meat product that was produced from cultured animal tissue produced from in vitro animal cell cultures outside of the animal from which the cells were derived.”

Michigan’s attempt to ban cultivated meat comes after other states like Florida, Iowa and Nebraska introduced legislation with the same aim.

Florida was the first state to ban the sale of cultivated meat. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill on May 1. Later that same month, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a law prohibiting the misbranding of certain food products, including lab-grown meat.

In August, a cultivated meat company, Upside Foods, along with the Institute for Justice filed a lawsuit challenging Florida’s new law.