It was Biden’s Food & Drug Administration that was the first to allow manufacturers of lab-grown animal cells to declare their new Frankenfood ingredients “generally recognized as safe,” but Trump’s FDA, under the leadership of Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is keeping pace. So far, it’s waived Mission Barns’ “pork,” WildType’s “salmon,” and Believer Meats’ “chicken” through the GRAS loophole.

The “bloody secret” kept by the people who grow slurries of animal cells for use as ultra-process food ingredients is that those cells need animal blood to grow, specifically “fetal bovine serum,” extracted from the beating hearts of live fetuses pulled from their slaughtered mothers. This isn’t just unethical and not vegetarian, it’s dangerous! Fetal bovine serum can contaminate lab-grown “meat” with mad cow disease! It’s also expensive. Fetal bovine serum can cost more than $1,000 per liter, limiting the profitability of lab-grown animal cells to a retail price of $200,000 per pound. The lab-grown meat people claim to be saving the planet, but the stuff uses 4 to 25 times the energy of real meat. 

And, while growth hormones are banned from hogs and poultry raised on farms, lab-grown cells require genetically engineered growth hormones to grow. 

Sec. Kennedy says lab-grown “meats” are “safe” and the federal government might be captured by the biotech industry, but states are fighting back. Here are the six states that have laws banning lab-grown Frankenfood ingredients, with their effective dates:

Florida – July 1, 2024, Alabama – Oct. 1, 2024, Nebraska – May 20, 2025, Mississippi – July 1, 2025, Indiana – July 1, 2025, Montana – October 1, 2025

If your state isn’t on the list…

TAKE ACTION: Ask Your State Legislators to Ban Lab-Grown Meat

Alexis Baden-Mayer, OCA Political Director:

Lab-grown Frankenfoods should have been regulated under Congress’s 1958 food additives law. This would have required each new lab-grown animal cell product to go through a rigorous premarket review to be approved or rejected based on scientific evidence, but in 1992, the George H.W. Bush Administration gave genetically modified organisms (GMOs) a blanket “Generally Recognized As Safe” (GRAS) exemption. This clip from Marie-Monique Robin’s 2008 documentary The World According to Monsanto explains how Monsanto made that happen.

The GRAS loophole is something Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has vowed to take on as part of his Make America Health Again initiative. On March 10, 2025, he promised to close this loophole that allows dangerous food additives to enter the marketplace without premarket safety testing.

We thought that might mean GMOs, lab-grown meat, and nanotech would finally be safety tested as food additives, but, so far, Sec. Kennedy hasn’t done anything about the GRAS loophole. Instead, his Food & Drug Administration has let three new lab-grown meat companies take advantage of it!

GRAS isn’t an approval process. According to the FDA, it’s a “pre-market consultation.”

GRAS doesn’t result in an FDA determination of safety. Instead, the FDA finishes its “consultation” by simply stating that it “has no questions at this time” about a company’s conclusion that its new Frankenfood “is as safe as comparable foods produced by other methods.”

GRAS leaves the people who eat lab-grown “meat” completely in the dark as to what they’re actually consuming–and what the risks are

TAKE ACTION: Tell Sec. Kennedy: Lab-Grown Frankenfoods Aren’t Safe

Natural Grocers:

“A significant number of people with mood disorders like anxiety and depression have been shown to have elevated levels of inflammatory markers throughout their bodies and in their cerebrospinal fluid. In depressive patients, inflammatory cytokines in the cerebrospinal fluid are correlated with the severity of their depression.

Researchers are still figuring out exactly what triggers the inflammation in mental health disorders, but one theory is that chronic stress and early life stress and trauma—which many people report experiencing before they develop a mood disorder—prompts an immune response that increases both systemic and neuroinflammation via inflammatory immune cells and cytokines.

Other sources of inflammation can include poor sleep quality, a high body mass index (BMI), and a poor diet. The evidence that inflammation plays a major role in mental health disorders is clear, so the question remains, how do you put out the fire?”

Fortunately, there is an arsenal of lifestyle and dietary strategies that can fairly easily be implemented to reign in inflammation

Prof. Dr. André Leu D.Sc., BA Com., Grad Dip Ed, International Director of Regeneration International:

The current regulatory systems have failed to protect children and the wider population from diseases caused by pesticides. It is important to remember that the majority of people get their exposure to pesticides from food. Most people, including children, carry a body burden of a cocktail of these toxic chemicals with no scientific evidence that they are safe. However, there is ample evidence that these chemicals are harming our children.

As an example, the latest study on glyphosate shows that residue levels four times lower than the EPA’s ‘safe level’ cause numerous cancers, including hemolymphoreticular tissues (leukemia), skin, liver, thyroid, nervous system, ovary, mammary gland, adrenal glands, kidney, urinary bladder, bone, endocrine pancreas, uterus, and spleen (hemangiosarcoma).

Currently, for consumers, the only way to avoid synthetic pesticides is to eat organically grown food. Most children are exposed to pesticides either directly by consuming food with pesticide residues or indirectly through the placenta and breast milk, as a result of pesticides in their mothers’ food.

Multiple scientific studies show that consuming organic food is the most effective way to protect children, as most pesticide exposure occurs through the consumption of food from industrial farming systems.



Read how with an all organic diet the reduction in glyphosate and AMPA levels was rapid, dropping to baseline within three days

TAKE ACTION: Make Your State the First to Ban Monsanto’s Roundup Weedkiller!

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is fighting to protect our food system from the threats of lab-grown meat and other ultra-processed foods. We’re standing up against corporate giants and government agencies that prioritize profits over people’s health and the planet’s well-being.

This week we are shining some light on the truth about lab-grown “meat” and giving you an opportunity to take action on it: it is unethical, potentially deadly, expensive and energy-intensive, and it’s lacking transparency and regulation, it is time to ban it in all states now!

The FDA is using loopholes to fast-track lab-grown meat products without proper oversight. But there’s hope: six states have already banned lab-grown Frankenfood ingredients, and we need your help to spread the movement to more states.

Join the Fight: By donating to OCA, you’ll be supporting farmer and consumer education, legal work and policy work for a healthy and just food and farming system!

Make a tax-deductible donation to Organic Consumers Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Make a tax-deductible donation to Regeneration International, our international sister organization

Keep in mind August is nationally recognized as “Make a Will Month”. Make your will or health directive for free and please consider a legacy gift to OCA or Regeneration International

If you choose to include a gift to OCA in your plan, know that you’re sowing seeds for a future where food is honest, farms are organic and health—not profit—comes first. Any gift, large or small, makes a lasting difference on future organic advocacy.

Together, we’ve shifted the conversation. With your legacy, we can shift the system. Create your free will now and the impact your will can make.

Sita Planasari writes for Tempo:

“The famine crisis in Gaza is a direct result of obstructed aid delivery by Israel, not a lack of available food, according to UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell on Sunday, amid reports of children dying from starvation.

‘Children have been spending months and months without sufficient food,’ Russell told CBS, as reported by Anadolu. She added, ‘We see just a horrible situation where children are on the verge of starvation and ultimately dying from starvation.’

Russell, a lawyer from the United States, emphasized that the crisis could have been prevented, stating that food supplies are available nearby but cannot reach residents in need.

‘This did not happen because there were cyclones or droughts. This happened because we could not get enough aid in to these children.’”

Read how on Friday, the IPC confirmed that famine has struck northern Gaza and is projected to spread to the southern region by the end of September

World Central Kitchen is seeking to rapidly scale up production to an unprecedented one million hot meals a day

By Raj Patel & Errol Schweizer, Civil Eats:

“Government-run, nonprofit grocery systems can better respond to food-price inflation, corporate consolidation, and inequality.

The affordability crisis is crushing American families. Grocery prices have spiked 32 percent since 2019, with even sharper increases in meat, frozen foods, and snacks—categories that make up over 50 percent of Americans’ calories and are dominated by a handful of conglomerates. Market concentration has enabled food giants to raise prices, while actual consumption has flatlined since 2019.

Some of the best visions for the future come from outside the United States. Bulgaria announced plans to roll out 1,500 rural grocery stores, buying local produce and reselling at cost to support both farmers and underserved rural consumers. From South Korea to the European Union, governments are strengthening public and local supply chains.

But we can look even closer to home to find a public grocery success story: the U.S. military.”

Read how the model is simple and effective of the Pentagon’s grocery system, and more

Fernández, EL PAÍS:

“The Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center, already notorious for the terrible conditions in which detainees are held, was erected in just eight days at the end of June, just over 12 miles from the Miccosukee people along the Tamiami Trail, the only road connecting Miami, on the east coast, with Tampa, on the west, crossing right through the heart of the Everglades.

So in mid-July, the Miccosukee joined a lawsuit filed by environmental groups against national and local governments alleging that the center would cause irreparable damage to the fragile wetland ecosystem that is their home.

They have lived there for hundreds of years and have a connection with that wet, unforgiving land that transcends idiosyncrasy; it is a primal, vital, and sacred attachment. The federal court in which the lawsuit was filed finally ordered authorities to dismantle the site within 60 days.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis assured last Friday that he will defend the continued existence of the detention center despite a judge’s order to close it.

Whatever legal future is pending for Alligator Alcatraz, the Miccosukee are proudly celebrating another instance in their long history of defending their land.”

Read how through their history the swamps were their salvation

Robin Motzer, Wildlands:

“Humanity is overfed and undernourished with junk because food has become fast, processed, synthetic, industrialized and GMO (genetically modified organisms). Too many people are detached from plants, animals and Something Greater than Ourselves. We are disconnected from food and life because so much of it is toxic. And most people do not get enough fiber in their meals which makes minds, bodies and spirits stuck and dis-eased, which may make one’s will to change even more of a challenge.

Our ancestors would not recognize our food and lifestyles today. Our chemical-intensive industrialized factory farms treat animals like products with no souls. They live in a void of nature, full of pesticides and toxic chemicals. My partner and I witnessed a semi-truck filled with chickens and only one moved, and she could only muster a flop. Known to have an IQ like a 5-year-old human, many animals, including bird species, are treated unethically and people consume them. Our inhumane and cruel industrial farm system is a large reason why humanity, ‘food’ and nature are sick.”

Read how to heal, we need to empower ourselves, communities and leaders to return to sustainable lifestyles, agriculture, schools, businesses and healthcare

Find your local farms with Regeneration International’s Farm Map

Zac Sherratt reports for BBC:

“Researchers say they have found a way to turn cherries into a powder that could help protect against Alzheimer’s disease.

Studies have previously claimed that consuming cherries can lead to improved cognition among people with mild to moderate dementia.

But researchers at the University of Kent believe that developing the fruit into powder, rather than consuming just the juice, can have a greater impact.

They said this was due to the powder’s ability to retain anthocyanin – an antioxidant found in cherries which some claim may contribute to defending against dementia.

The study in Kent took damaged or discolored cherries that would have otherwise been thrown away to create the powder.”

Read how working with local growers has been key to this success

Should You Divide Perennials Now or Wait? What Gardeners Do for a Better Garden Next Year 

Know Your Vitamin D Level: Test Your Level to Support the My Health Alliance Lobby Day

Lower Levels of Healthy Fats Linked to Alzheimer’s in Women

Fraser River Salmon Returns This Year a ‘Real Chance To Celebrate,’ Harvesters Say

Songs Don’t Just Move Us, They Shape Memories

Brain Abnormalities Seen in Children Exposed Prenatally to the Pesticide Chlorpyrifos

Legislation Will Gut the Clean Water Act, Thwarting Decades of Safety

Using an AI Chatbot for Therapy or Health Advice? Experts Want You To Know These 4 Things

Eating Meat May Protect Against Cancer, Landmark Research Shows

Federal Websites Are Going Dark as Evidence of Mass Tampering With Government Data Emerges

A Food Sovereignty Win in Maine from Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund

Factory Farms Don’t Just Stink — They Make It Harder To Breathe, Too

What Is a “Skinny” Farm Bill—and Is It a Bad Thing?

How Much Energy Does Google’s AI Use? We Did the Math

Ordering Takeout? It Might Be Wrecking Your Gut Health, According to a New Study

MAHA Is Reshaping Amazon and Other Consumer Packaged Goods Companies’ Supply Chains More Than Tariffs Right Now, Manufacturing Platform CEO Says

The Trump and Republican Push To Eliminate South Dakota’s Small Family Farms Is in Full Swing

Study of Over 400,000 People Links Gut Bacteria With Insomnia Risk