Environmental organizations are calling out President Joe Biden’s Department of Defense for pumping millions into “fake meat” for U.S. troops.
“America’s enemies are laughing at us,” The think tank Center for The Environment and Welfare said in a statement. “The newest round of investments includes a seven-figure grant awarded to “plan a bioproduction facility for fungi-based proteins that can be incorporated into military ready-to-eat meals.”
The response to the Pentagon’s action called out perceived inconsistencies.”The announcement is only the latest example of the DoD bankrolling fake meat. In June, CEW raised the alarm about the DoD’s plans to invest in experimental “lab-grown” meat through a public-private partnership. The funding was supposed to be part of an initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at military mess halls. However, after receiving pushback, the DoD agreed that it would not fund lab-grown meat,” the statement continued.
Nevertheless, CEW says that the Pentagon has continued with efforts to produce artificial meat, including an August grant to make “fake meat from fermented fungus.”
Fake Meat foes believe the menu will change dramatically when President-Elect Donald Trump takes office next month.
“Despite outrage from Americans who know our troops deserve better, the Pentagon continues to pour millions of taxpayer dollars into funding alternatives to natural, farm-raised meat. If confirmed, Pete Hegseth has an opportunity to end this nonsense and get the military back on track,” Jack Hubbard, Executive Director of CEW added.
The latest round of federal funds financing faux-fillets comes directly from a defense grant program. Grants must be approved by the Pentagon and recipients can receive substantial sums of money.
“These proposals will be eligible to receive follow-on ‘build’ awards providing access to up to $100 million to construct U.S.-based bioindustrial manufacturing facilities,” a DOD press release on the subject states.
Grants have been issued to companies across the country and some money is purportedly headed to Texas-based firms. The press announcement said a $2 million contract went to Houston’s Solugen to “plan a multi-use modular facility to establish cost-effective production of dual-use precursors that cannot be sourced domestically.”
High-ranking defense officials defended the grants in security terms.
“The introduction of new investment and funding strategies aligned to the National Defense Industrial Strategy offers the DoD rapid access to commercial solutions for defense requirements,” Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy said. “The [Defense Industrial Base Consortium Other Transaction Agreement] provides DoD with new paths for innovation through industry and ensures continued U.S. competitiveness.”
As CEW had stated, the Biden Administration was reportedly backing off defense-related artificial meat projects as recently as this summer.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) had reportedly exposed a DoD-led plan to produce lab-grown protein projects for human consumption and subsequently the project was halted, the beef industry outlet Drover reported.
“NCBA was the first and only cattle group to uncover this stream of DoD funding that could go toward lab-grown protein projects, and we were the first and only group to fight back,” NCBA President Mark Eisele was quoted as saying at the time. “After weeks of engaging with Congress and speaking out against this plan, we are thrilled to have DoD confirmation that lab-grown protein is not on the menu for our nation’s servicemembers. These men and women make the greatest sacrifices every day in service to our country and they deserve high-quality, nutritious, and wholesome food like real beef grown by American farmers and ranchers.”
It is unclear why the Biden Administration has changed course. However, the President issued Executive Order 14081 announcing that “the Department of Defense shall incentivize the expansion of domestic, flexible industrial biomanufacturing capacity for a wide range of materials that can be used to make a diversity of products for the defense supply chain,” in September.
The preamble to the order explained this decision by saying, “Biotechnology harnesses the power of biology to create new services and products, which provide opportunities to grow the United States economy and workforce and improve the quality of our lives and the environment.”
The fallout between CEW and DoD is one of several areas of conflict between organizations concerned about agriculture and Biden’s Administration
The Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA) called out the USDA in a letter to Congress for a new electronic cattle ear-tagging rule that they and others saw as offloading the expenses of large corporate food producers onto small farmers and ranchers, The Dallas Express reported.
FARFA also later joined a lawsuit from the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America, commonly known as R-CALF, against the USDA challenging the rule in late October 2024. The case now pends before the federal U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota.