Legislation to prevent cell-based animal protein grown in a laboratory from being labeled as “meat” or a “meat product” was introduced in the Alabama Legislature this week. 

HB 518 by Rep. Danny Crawford, R-Athens, prohibits a food product containing cultured animal tissue from being marketed as meat. The bill also applies to poultry. 

Earlier this year, delegates of the American Farm Bureau Federation approved policy opposing the use of traditional meat terms to describe cell-based protein and plant-based meat alternatives. 

Crawford’s bill has been assigned to the House Agriculture and Forestry Committee, which he chairs.