DOD-funded firm wants to fight climate change by feeding lab-grown meat to troops, and gets skewered

The Department of Defense is funding a bio-industrial manufacturing company that has proposed feeding U.S. troops lab-grown meat to help “reduce the CO2 footprint of food production.”

BioMADE’s plan, however, is getting skewered from the halls of Congress to cattle producers who argue the troops would be treated like "lab rats."

The company received a $450 million budget increase from the DOD last year which BioMADE said would strengthen the education and innovation for bioindustrial manufacturing.

The proposal from BioMADE includes growing meat and other kinds of food by “utilizing one carbon molecule (C1) feedstocks for food production.”

As of now, this process is still in the experimental phase.

The soldiers will be given food that uses "novel cell culture methods suitable for the production of cultivated meat/protein,” the report reads. 

This report has led to criticism from cattle producers who said that the research grant given to BioMADE is "outrageous."

“It is outrageous that the Department of Defense is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to feed our heroes like lab rats,” National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane said to Just the News in a statement. 

He went on to say that U.S. troops deserve so much better than meat grown in a lab. 

“US cattle producers raise the highest-quality beef in the world, with the lowest carbon footprint – and American troops deserve to be served that same wholesome, natural meat and not ultra-processed, lab-grown protein that is cooked up in a chemical-filled bioreactor," he said. 

“This misguided research project is a giant slap in the face to everyone that has served our country," Lane continued. 

Lab grown meat has made headlines lately with some Republican politicians speaking out against it. Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation last month banning the sale of lab grown meat.

"While the World Economic Forum is telling the world to forgo meat consumption, Florida is increasing meat production, and encouraging residents to continue to consume and enjoy 100% real Florida beef," a spokesperson from DeSantis's office told Just the News.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., released a statement against the idea of lab grown meat last year. 

"I’m taking a hard pass on artificial meat, whether it’s grown from animal cells that have attributes of tumors, or manufactured from plants (eg veggie burgers)," Massie wrote on the social media platform, X. "Both require an industrialized production system in which food will be made in giant factories, not on farms."