Feds reject Iowa request to bar food assistance dollars from buying meat, egg substitutes

DES MOINES — Iowans on federal food assistance programs cannot be prohibited from using their benefits to purchase lab-grown meat and egg substitute products, the federal government has ruled.

A state law passed during this year’s legislative session instructed the state to request a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would allow Iowa to prohibit SNAP recipients from using benefits to buy egg substitute products or cultivated protein food products, which are animal food products that are grown from cells in a lab, instead of being raised on a farm.

The SNAP program is funded by the federal government while state and federal governments share the administrative costs. Any operational changes states wish to make must be approved by the federal agriculture department.

In its waiver request, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services said cultivated protein and egg substitute products “may not” be as nutritious as meat and eggs.

Iowa Republicans in favor of the measure said the policy would help protect Iowa’s livestock farmers and poultry producers.

In denying Iowa’s waiver request, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the request did not provide information on how it would raise Iowans’ nutrition levels or how the state would evaluate the effects of such a prohibition.

Further, the USDA said, the waiver request did not meet any of four criteria for a waiver: that it would improve program administration, increase the self-sufficiency of SNAP recipients, test innovative welfare reform strategies, or allow greater conformity with the rules of other programs.

The USDA denied Iowa’s waiver request in a letter to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services dated July 12. The Gazette asked the USDA for its ruling on Iowa’s waiver request in July; a USDA spokeswoman emailed the USDA denial letter to The Gazette on Wednesday.

Neither Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds nor Iowa Department of Health and Human Services Director Kelly Garcia responded to a request for comment Thursday.

The law attempting to ban meat and egg substitutes, Senate File 2391, passed the Iowa Legislature with mostly Republican votes and was signed into law by Reynolds in May during a bill-signing ceremony at an Iowa County farm near Ladora.

The new law also prohibits lab-grown meat substitute products from being used in Iowa school meals.

The law also requires labeling on meat substitute products, like vegetable and plant-based burgers, to feature prominent labeling that makes clear the product is not meat. The law directs the state Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing to create rules and impose civil penalties on food manufacturing plants that mislabel non-meat foods.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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Download: Final Iowa Cultivated Meat Denial July 12 2024.pdf