Texas Bans ‘Meat’ and ‘Beef’ From Plant-Based Food Labels

Don't mess with Texas and its meats. Get that plant-based crap out of here. Well, you can have your plant-based "meats", you just can't call them "meat". A bill was passed this week that prevents companies that produce foods from insects, plants, or cell cultures from using the words “meat,” “pork,” “poultry” or “beef.” Basically, if it doesn't come from a slaughtered animal, don't try to call it that.

One term that isn't banned is using the word "burger." This makes sense, since for many years we've had "soy" burgers. The term burger doesn't necessarily mean "meat". Although the first definition for "burger" is:

a dish consisting of a round patty of ground beef, or sometimes another savory ingredient, that is fried or grilled and typically served in a split bun or roll with various condiments and toppings.

But a secondary definition leaves the door open for it being made of something other than meat.

meat or other food made into a round, fairlyflatshape, fried and usually eaten between two halves of a breadroll:

Of course, this bill didn't have 100% support.

State Rep. Gene Wu (D) argued that if the bill passes the state could be subject to unnecessary litigation. A Republican state lawmaker, Rep. Kyle Biedermann, said that he supported the bill, but was concerned about state overreach.

Biederman said of the bill:

There shouldn’t be a need to have to legislate more regulation of these other companies when it seems their packaging is pretty clear.

While this is one of those bills that you can easily look at think "F*** yeah, don't try to pass off your plant-based garbage as real meat", the real question is "do we really need to be gobbling up government time with things like this?"