The Mississippi House Agriculture Committee, led by Chairman Bill Pigott and Vice Chairman Vince Mangold, is doing everything it can to regulate the labeling on “fake meat.”
On Wednesday, Mangold presented House Bill 793, also known as the Fake Meat Bill, to the House floor. It passed with little opposition.
The measure amends state law to provide that “any food product containing cell-cultured animal tissue or plant-based or insect-based food shall not be labeled meat or as a meat product.”
“Thank you to Chairman Hudson, Vice Chairman Mangold and the House Ag Committee for your work in pushing this bill forward,” Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation President Mike McCormick said. “This bill will protect our cattle farmers from having to compete with products not harvested from an animal.”
In addition to the Fake Meat Bill, the House Agriculture Committee passed two more bills.
The committee passed House Bill 702 which would increase the allowed amount of cottage food sales from $20,000 to $35,000 and allow internet sales. After being passed in committee, this bill was presented on the House floor and passed.
The committee also passed House Bill 134 which would authorize a state income tax credit to grocers for a percentage of the cost of purchasing locally grown or produced agricultural products. It has yet to be presented to the House floor.