The Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein opened its doors at North Carolina State University on Friday, with the help of a substantial grant from the $10-billion Bezos Earth Fund.

The Center, which is intended to be a "biomanufacturing hub for dietary proteins that are environmentally friendly, healthy, tasty, and affordable," will focus on researching and commercializing technologies like cell-cultured meat—a.k.a. lab-grown meat—and precision fermentation, which uses processes similar to the manufacture of beer to grown proteins and other products.

The Bezos Earth Fund has earmarked $100 million for a network of research centers dedicated to research into "sustainable proteins," as part of a broader $1 billion committed to transform food production and agriculture.

"Food production is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, so it's critical we find ways to feed a growing population without degrading the planet," said Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the Earth Fund in a statement.

The opening of the Bezos Center comes hot on the heels of two state-wide bans on the production and sale of lab-grown meat. Alabama and Florida have now both enacted bans into law.

"What we're protecting here is the industry against acts of man, against an ideological agenda that wants to finger agriculture as the problem, that uses things like raising cattle as destroying our climate," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, after signing his state's bill.

"This will be people who will lecture the rest of us about things like global warming, they will say you can't drive an internal combustion vehicle, they will say agriculture is bad, meanwhile, they're flying to Davos in their private jets."

Arizona and Tennessee are also considering similar legislation at the present.

As well as these state-level bans, there are regulations at the federal and state level preventing manufacturers of lab-grown meat from calling their products "meat" and requiring them to label their products as "lab-grown."