The Department of Defense has given $1.5 million to a Democratic donor’s fake meat company, and the American taxpayer is footing the bill.
The Better Meat Company, which creates artificial meat from fungus protein, is led by Paul Shapiro, CEO and Democratic donor.
The taxpayer-funded grant will bankroll a “bioproduction facility for mycoprotein ingredients that are shelf-stable, have high protein and fiber contents, and can be dehydrated.”
The company creates the fake meat by feeding water and nutrients to fungal roots in a bioreactor.
It is then turned into a semi-solid gray liquid that is strained to finally become the “meat.”
According to a Pentagon spokesman, the award ” supports a bioproduction facility for types of protein that are shelf-stable, have high protein and fiber content, and can rapidly support the sustainment requirements of our globally deployed forces. “
“We are investing in sources of protein such as chickpeas and tofu,” the Pentagon spokesman said.
“The Department is not funding research into ‘lab-grown’ or ‘fake meat’ – nor does it have plans to include such protein substitutes in service members’ MREs.”
The grant will also fund a “facility for mycoprotein ingredients,” the same ingredients used to create fake meat.
In June, The Daily Signal reported U.S. troops could be used as “guinea pigs” in a Defense Department-funded lab-grown “meat” initiative to reduce its carbon footprint.
However, following backlash, the department backtracked and agreed not to fund the fake meat initiative this July.
“We believe the future of meat production is fermentation-fueled,” the Better Meat Company claims on its website.
“We aspire to revolutionize the meat industry by creating a new and better way to make meat,” it says, referencing its faux-meat product.
Jake Hubbard is the Executive Director of the Center for the Environment and Welfare, an organization “founded to help consumers, companies, and stakeholders navigate issues related to sustainability and animal welfare.”
Hubbard slammed the Defense Department’s grant, arguing that the funding would support the company producing phony meat.
“America’s foreign enemies are laughing at us,” he said, asserting that the Pentagon should stick to national security instead of diverting taxpayer dollars to companies that produce fake meat.
Earlier this year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law banning the sale of lab-grown meat in the state.
During a press conference, Desantis said, “fake meat’ production was rooted in an “ideological agenda” which aims to demonize ranchers for “climate change.”
“These will be people who will lecture the rest of us about things like global warming, they will say that you can’t drive an internal combustion engine vehicle, they’ll say that agriculture is bad. Meanwhile, they’re flying to Davos and their private jets,” he said.
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