Senator Adam Schiff introduced legislation today that would direct more than $500 million in federal funding over five years toward developing alternative proteins—the lab-grown and plant-based options that are meant to sit alongside, not replace, conventional meat in America's food system.
The PROTEIN Act (Producing Real Opportunities for Technology and Entrepreneurs Investing in Nutrition) goes beyond just funding research. It would also establish workforce development programs and direct the USDA to create a national strategy for what the bill calls "protein diversification." The move signals a shift in how Washington treats food innovation: less as a niche startup concern, more as infrastructure.
"Right now in America, it seems all anyone can talk about is protein, but the exploding demand for it is not something our current food system will be able to meet," Schiff said in a statement. The bill has backing from industry groups including the Good Food Institute, which has been pushing for federal investment in this space for years.
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The legislation would designate three existing USDA research centers as "centers of excellence" for protein innovation, each receiving $15 million annually through 2030. A separate $10 million annual research program within the USDA's Agriculture Research Service would support additional work. Grant programs would fund outside research and help build a workforce trained in alternative protein production.
This federal push comes at a moment when the sector needs it. Plant-based meat sales dropped 20 percent between 2022 and 2024, and several lab-grown meat companies have shuttered operations. The fundamental science works—researchers have proven they can create high-quality alternative proteins in controlled settings. The bottleneck isn't discovery. It's scaling.
"The scientific fundamentals for creating high-quality alternative proteins are well established, but translating these discoveries into commercially viable products at scale requires significant infrastructure investment," said D. Julian McClements, a food science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Federal funding, in this framing, fills the gap between what researchers can prove in the lab and what manufacturers can actually produce at a price consumers will pay.
The bill will likely face resistance. The meat industry has opposed alternative protein development before, and the current political moment includes growing concern about ultraprocessed foods—a category that includes some alternative proteins. Schiff's office has emphasized that the goal is supplementing the meat supply, not replacing it, and that better funding will help companies improve nutritional profiles.
The legislation represents a bet that protein demand will keep rising and that diversifying how America produces it—rather than relying solely on conventional livestock—is a strategic advantage, both economically and environmentally.
