DeSantis warns WHO is ‘coming after meat’ amid viral video of official calling for ‘transformation’
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted a video where the World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus advocated for a “transformation” in the world’s food system.
DeSantis signed legislation earlier in the month that bans cultivation, distribution and sale of lab grown meat in Florida.
The measure was strongly touted through the legislature by Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, and was sponsored by Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, and Rep. Danny Alvarez, R-Riverview.
“They are coming after meat…” DeSantis said on social media in response to the video that has gone viral, originally posted in December 2023.
In the video, Ghebreyesus argued that the world’s food system is harming the health of people and the planet.
“Transforming food systems is therefor essential by shifting towards healthier, diversified and more plant based diets,” he said.
“WHO is committed to supporting countries to develop and implement policies to improve diets and fight climate change,” he added.
During the bill signing, DeSantis argued against embracing cultivated meat options supported by organizations like the World Economic Forum, or the WEF.
“These will be people who lecture us about things like global warming, they will say that you can’t drive an internal combustion engine vehicle, they’ll say that agriculture’s bad, meanwhile, they’re flying to Davos in their private jets,” the governor said.
“So this is really a vision of imposing restrictions on freedoms for everyday people, while these elites are effectively pulling the stings, calling the shots and doing whatever the hell they want to do in their own lives,” he said.
The governor said that policies pushed by the WEF are “dead on arrival” in Florida.
He added that the organization’s emphasis on promoting cultivated meat is not because of market competition.
“Because they know if that was put out their to compete with normal beef, that they would lose,” he said.
