South Dakota
Lab-grown meat should be clearly labeled, panel of SD lawmakers decides • South Dakota Searchlight
A committee of South Dakota legislators advanced a bill Tuesday at the Capitol in Pierre that would define lab-grown meat and require it to be clearly labeled.
The state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources proposed the legislation. Cheyenne Tant, a policy adviser for the department, explained it to legislators.
“South Dakota consumers deserve transparency when deciding whether to purchase a product grown in a lab versus products grown by our hardworking farmers and ranchers,” Tant said.
The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee voted 13-0 to send the bill to the full House of Representatives.
Was that chicken cutlet grown in a lab? These states (including SD) want you to know.
The legislation describes lab-grown meat as “cell-cultured protein” and defines it as “a product that is produced for use as human food, made wholly or in part from any cell culture or the DNA of a host animal, and grown or cultivated outside a live animal.”
The bill also says any product that contains cell-cultured protein without being clearly labeled as “cell-cultured” or “lab-grown” would be considered misbranded. That provision builds on a state law adopted in 2019 that prohibits the mislabeling of meat. Enforcement would fall to the state Animal Industry Board, Tant said, which could work with companies to change their labels or take steps to remove noncompliant products from South Dakota shelves.
Nobody testified against the bill, and supporters represented diverse interests.
Hunter Roberts, secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, called lab-grown meat “gross.” Several groups representing farmers and ranchers said they want transparency in labeling to differentiate their traditionally raised meat from lab-grown versions.
Good Food Institute, a group that works to advance innovation in alternative proteins, also supported the bill. The nonpartisan, nonprofit organization was represented at the committee meeting by Erin Rees Clayton, a Pierre-based senior scientific adviser for the institute.
She said producers of alternative proteins also want to differentiate their products.
“Just as South Dakota farmers and ranchers are proud of their products, cultivated meat producers are proud of their products, too,” Rees Clayton said. “They want to celebrate the innovation and production processes behind the meat they produce.”
She said lab-cultivated meat has existed for a little more than a decade. It starts from a small sample of animal cells that are fed the sugars, water, proteins and vitamins needed to grow into muscle and fat.
“Cultivated meat is meat at the cellular level, offering similar taste, texture and safety profiles,” Rees Clayton said. “It’s just produced in a different way.”
She said the fledgling industry may someday be able to help satisfy the rising global population’s demand for protein. It could also add resiliency to food supply chains, she said, because it’s less vulnerable to natural disasters and other unpredictable events that can affect traditional meat production.
For now, Rees Clayton said, federal regulators have approved only two U.S. companies to produce and sell cultivated meat, and neither company has brought a product to the market yet.
Rees Clayton failed to convince legislators to consider what she described as a “minor” amendment. It would add terms such as “cell-cultivated” or “cultivated” to the bill’s definition of lab-grown meat, which she said would better align the legislation with industry standards.
Some other states, including Florida and Alabama, have banned lab-grown meat. Nebraska is considering a ban.
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RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Students at South Dakota Mines heard Wednesday from retired four-star general Maryanne Miller about her journey to the highest ranks of the U.S. military.
Miller is a retired four-star U.S. Air Force general. She is the only member of the Air Force Reserve ever to be promoted to this level.
She spoke about finding greatness and living a life of fulfillment. Her stories came from her time in the Air Force and as a volunteer for Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity.
“We so much get focused on what is our next step in life, what’s the next career move, how do we make ourselves better in our career, and we forget about how do we make ourselves better as a human being,” Miller said. “Because they have to go tandem. If it’s not tandem, you’re going to get off track.”
Miller was commissioned in 1981 and rose through the ranks before becoming a four-star general in 2018. She was the only woman serving as a four-star officer in the military at the time. She retired in 2020 after serving for almost 40 years.
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South Dakota
USDA to offer distaster assistance to South Dakota agriculture producers impacted by winter storms
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering financial and technical assistance to South Dakota farmers and livestock producers who may have been impacted by the recent winter storms.
“I encourage impacted producers to contact their local USDA Service Center to report losses and learn more about program options available to assist in their recovery from crop, land, infrastructure, and livestock losses and damages.” said Richard Fordyce, Production and Conservation Under Secretary.
FSA’s Emergency Conservation Program and Emergency Forest Restoration Program can assist landowners with financial assistance to restore damaged land and conservation structures or forests.
“Our staff will work one-on-one with landowners to make assessments of the damages and develop methods that focus on effective recovery of the land.” said Jessica Michalski, Acting NRCS State Conservationist in South Dakota.
For more information about the disaster assistance program, click here.
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, left, and Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen unveil a plaque for retired U.S. Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams in the Hall of Honor at the Capitol in Pierre on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight)
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) — There’s a new name in the South Dakota Hall of Honor at the state Capitol building.
One-hundred-year-old South Dakota native and retired U.S. Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams was celebrated at a Wednesday ceremony where a plaque honoring him was unveiled, although Williams did not attend.
“In spite of being outnumbered and facing incredible danger, Captain Williams engaged the enemy with courage and skill,” said Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden. “Our state has always had a strong tradition of service, and Captain Williams is the very best of that tradition.”
President Donald Trump awarded Williams the Medal of Honor, the country’s highest military honor, at the State of the Union address earlier this year. The medal honors actions by Williams that had been classified for decades.
“His story was secret for over 50 years, he didn’t even want to tell his wife, but the legend grew and grew,” Trump said during the speech in February. “But tonight, at 100 years old, this brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves.”
On Nov. 18, 1952, over Korean coastal waters during the Korean War, then-Lt. Williams, from Wilmot, South Dakota, led three F9F Panthers against seven Soviet MiG-15s. He disabled three enemy jets and damaged a fourth.
The Soviet jets, according to the U.S. Naval Institute, were “superior to the F9F in almost every fashion.” The mission was the only direct overwater combat between U.S. Navy fighters and Soviet fighters during the Cold War.
Williams, one of 11 Medal of Honor recipients from South Dakota, now lives in California. The Hall of Honor at the South Dakota Capitol is located in the hallway that visitors enter immediately after going through security.
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