{"id":59426,"date":"2025-11-24T23:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T23:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/59426\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T23:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T23:05:08","slug":"campbell-soup-at-risk-of-being-shut-down-in-florida-after-secret-audio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/59426\/","title":{"rendered":"Campbell soup at risk of being “shut down” in Florida after secret audio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida\u2019s attorney general said he will \u201cshut down\u201d violators of the state\u2019s law on lab-grown meat after launching an investigation into Campbell\u2019s over a secret recording<\/a> of an executive at the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t do the fake, lab grown meat here in Florida. We\u2019ll enforce the law and shut down!\u201d Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said on X<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Uthmeier said the state\u2019s Consumer Protection division is launching an investigation into the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WDIV<\/a> broadcast portions of the recording. In the recording, a speaker identified as Campbell\u2019s Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer, Martin Bally, is heard saying, “We have s**t for f***ing poor people. Who buys our s**t?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t buy Campbell\u2019s products barely anymore. It\u2019s not healthy now that I know what the f***\u2018s in it,” the speaker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The speaker also referenced “bioengineered meat,” saying, “I don\u2019t wanna eat a f***ing, a piece of chicken that came from a 3D printer.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use 100% real chicken in our soups,\u201d James F. Regan, director of external communications at Campbell\u2019s, told Newsweek. \u201cThe chicken meat comes from long-trusted, USDA approved U.S. suppliers and meets our high quality standards. All of our soups are made with No Antibiotics Ever chicken meat. Any claims to the contrary are completely false.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Newsweek reached out to the Florida Attorney General\u2019s Office for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why It Matters\u00a0<\/p>\n

The development and sale of lab-grown meat is banned in seven states, according to the South Carolina Daily Gazette. Florida\u2019s ban was signed into law last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, Florida is fighting back against the global elite\u2019s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals,\u201d Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in a statement last year\u00a0on the legislation\u2019s signing. \u201cOur administration will continue to focus on investing in our local farmers and ranchers, and we will save our beef.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

What To Know\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robert Garza, a former employee of the company, told WDIV that he recorded the hour-long comments from Bally where he discussed “bioengineered meat” and other topics.<\/p>\n

Garza is suing the Campbell Soup Company and supervisor J.D. Aupperle for employment discrimination and retaliation. The lawsuit was filed in Wayne County Circuit Court in Michigan on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims Garza was fired on January 30 in retaliation for raising concerns about Bally and accuses the company of maintaining a racially hostile work environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a motto: \u2018We treat you like family here at Campbell\u2018s — come work for us,\u2019\u201d Garza told WDIV. \u201c\u2018We treat our employees like family.\u2019 That\u2019s not the case.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garza\u2019s attorney said his client \u201cnever had any disciplinary action, they had never written him up for work performance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Campbell\u2019s previously told Newsweek, \u201cIf the recording is legitimate, the comments are unacceptable. They do not reflect our values and the culture of our company. Mr. Bally is temporarily on leave while we conduct an investigation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

What People Are Saying\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, on X<\/a>: \u201cFlorida law bans lab-grown meat. Our Consumer Protection division is launching an investigation and will demand answers from Campbell\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Campbell\u2019s, in previous comments to Newsweeek: “We are proud of the food we make, the people who make it and the high-quality ingredients we use. The comments on the recording are not only inaccurate\u2014they are patently absurd.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

What Happens Next\u00a0<\/p>\n

The case is expected to proceed in Wayne County Circuit Court. Uthmeier said the state\u2019s Consumer Protection is launching an investigation into the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do you have a story that\u00a0Newsweek\u00a0should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s attorney general said he will \u201cshut down\u201d violators of the state\u2019s law on lab-grown meat after launching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36137,28,30,29,667,833,36138,36139],"class_list":["post-59426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-campbells","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-investigation","tag-lawsuit","tag-meat-industry","tag-recording"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}