This week the Senate passed a bill to protect Iowa’s livestock farmers and support our state’s agriculture industry. Senate File 2391 ensures food products that come from a cell-cultivated, plant, or insect protein cannot be labeled as beef, chicken, goat, pork, lamb, sheep, or turkey. This does not apply to products labeled as imitation or substitutes according to federal law. A cell-cultivated, insect, or plant protein product is permitted to use an identifiable meat term such as “drumstick” or “sausage” if the label includes a clear qualifying term such as “meatless”, “lab-grown”, or “plant-based.”
Iowa is the number one pork, corn, and egg producer in the country, and the second top producer of soybeans. In 2023, we had over 86,000 farms in Iowa, totaling 30 million acres. Our farmers work hard to provide quality food products for our country and for the world. While providing for us, they have been dealing with high land prices and high costs for the things they need, like seed, feed, and equipment.
Passing this bill is one thing we can do to help support Iowa farmers and ensure their work is not undermined by food products made in a lab. As a relatively new product, there is a lack of research on cell-cultivated protein, which has raised questions about the safety of these products. This bill requires products with these new types of proteins to market with integrity and make sure they cannot be confused with the quality meat farmers across the state are raising.
LAND OWNERSHIP
A founding principle of this nation is the ability of Americans to buy land and improve their lot in life. This week the Senate passed SF 2324 to protect that opportunity for future generations. It prevents state government from bidding against farmers to purchase land. This bill does not eliminate the ability of landowners to sell land to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) if they wish. However, it does prevent state government from bidding on land in an auction and using farmers’ tax dollars to compete against them to purchase land. The DNR currently follows this practice. This bill writes the practice into code.
Last week, the Senate also passed Senate File 2204, making Iowa’s land protection laws even stronger and ensuring we know who is buying land in our state. The House passed the bill this week, and it is one of the first pieces of legislation this session to be sent to the governor’s desk for her signature.
