A Florida House panel Tuesday approved a wide-ranging bill that would prevent local governments from adding fluoride to water supplies and take steps to block labeling of plant-based food as meat, milk, poultry and eggs.

The House Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee voted 14-3 to approve the 155-page bill (HB 651), sponsored by Rep. Kaylee Tuck, R-Lake Placid, and Rep. Danny Alvarez, R-Hillsborough County. It addresses numerous issues involving the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and is similar to a measure (SB 700) that has started moving forward in the Senate.

The bills come amid debates in communities throughout Florida about whether to continue the longstanding practice of adding fluoride to drinking water to help with dental health. The House bill does not specifically mention fluoride, but it would prevent the “use of any additive included primarily for health-related purposes.”

When asked about the issue after Tuesday’s meeting, Tuck pointed to a move toward more “health freedom.” When the package — dubbed the “Florida Farm Bill” — was announced last month, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson made a similar argument.

“If COVID-19 taught us anything, it is that government has the ability to force health decisions without our consent based on emerging facts,” Simpson said in a prepared statement at the time. “Public water systems should be about fresh, clean, safe drinking water — not a means for delivering government prescribed medicine without the consent of the consumer.”

But Brandon Edmonston, a lobbyist for the Florida Dental Association, told the House panel that local communities should be able to decide whether to add fluoride to water supplies.

“Community water fluoridation is regarded as one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th Century,” Edmonston said.

The bill also takes aim at the labeling of plant-based products as milk, meat, poultry and eggs. It would set up a process that could lead to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services adopting rules that would prevent the sale of plant-based products “mislabeled” as milk, meat, poultry or eggs.

That process would be triggered if at least 11 of 14 other states pass similar legislation. Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Tuck said the labeling issue is a consumer-protection concern.

“Words matter, and when shoppers pick up a product labeled as ‘milk’ or ‘meat,’ or ‘poultry,’ they shouldn’t have to read the fine print to find out it’s actually made from soy, almonds or chemicals,” Simpson said last month.

But Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, questioned the need for the labeling restrictions and noted that lawmakers last year banned the sale and manufacturing of lab-grown, or “cultivated,” meat in Florida.

“This year, we can’t call something meat unless it comes from a cow,” said Cross, who, along with Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, and Rep. Felicia Robinson, D-Miami Gardens, voted against the bill.

The bill needs approval from three more House panels before it could go to the full House.

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