Luddites, Luddites, Everywhere!

From the annals of the "Department of Too Much Free Time" comes the latest head scratcher. A state legislature has passed a law prohibiting the sale of cultivated or "lab-grown" meat, and the governor is expected to sign it.

The state is Florida and the governor is former and possibly future Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.

The "why" is delved into by River Page at The Free Press. In short, it is post-COVID distrust of the FDA ("has made mistakes before") masking protectionism for the cattle industry.

Used to be, it was the progressives who were suspicious of "Science!" when it comes to food, dubbing (some) genetically modified foods as "Frankenfood," embracing organic (i.e. shit-based) farming practices, and believing that natural is always better (arsenic, an element, is about as natural as can be, and it'll kill you dead. So will a variety of mushrooms, and so will many other common things if you eat too much).

Technological advancement has enabled us to feed more people with less land than ever before, and that advancement is perpetual and relentless. Not every innovation works out, of course, and indeed the government has made mistakes in the realm of nutrition (the original food pyramid, co-opted by the grain industry (hmmmm....) made us fat).

But, why ban fake meat?

Why not let consumers and the marketplace decide?

And, why Florida, where the governor made a name for himself by touting a liberty agenda?

A friend recently lamented that "the Irish [are] historically unused to individual rights as a thing." Americans, who have had an affinity for rights since before the Revolution, are going down that path. Despite the ample proof that a - prohibitions don't work, and b - prohibitors often have an unseemly hidden agenda, we still see too many of our fellow citizens saying "I don't like this or trust this, therefore no one else should be allowed to have it."

This attitude has been coupled with the increasingly binary and tribal nature of our political playpen. If the Right likes vaccines, the Left doesn't trust them. If the Left likes vaccines, the Right doesn't trust them. Organic and non-GMO are more prevalent in liberal parts of the country, but the same people who eschew some technological food will happily eat other technological food. Hunted meat is as organic as it gets, but many "organic" eaters are horrified by it because it's mostly done by the other team. I already blogged about raw milk.

I've grown to expect the Democrats, who have been bullied into submission by the Left, to cough up prohibitions and mandates. Sadly, I see too much similar behavior from the Republicans lately, as the party morphs from one with aspirations toward freedom to one that's about protectionism and about reflexively counterweighting the Left. Or, as some say, "pwning the libs!"

How about this?

If you want to eat fake meat, do so.

If you don't, don't.

Isn't that simpler than supporting politicians that take that choice away from you?

If your answer is "ban it because we don't understand it fully," take a moment and ponder whether that "we" is simply "you."