Alabama has become the second U.S. state to say no to cultivated meat, an alternative protein made from animal cells.

The Alabama bill, proposed by Sen. Jack Williams, vice chair of the Senate Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry Committee, and signed into of law on May 7 by Gov. Kay Ivy, prohibits “the manufacture, sale, or distribution of food products made from cultured animal cells.”

The new law comes a week after Gov. Ron DeSantis made Florida the first state to ban the sale of so-called lab-grown meat. “We stand with agriculture, we stand with the cattle ranchers, we stand with our farmers, because we understand it’s important for the backbone of the state,” DeSantis said in a May 1 press conference, the start of National Beef Month.

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By contrast, cell-based protein doesn’t require the land, water and crops needed to raise livestock, a boon for the environment as global demand for meat rises, experts note. Global funding for cultivated meat and seafood companies, of which there are more than 100, reached $225.9 million in in 2023 and a total more that $3 billion since 2013, according to the Good Food Institute.