Nikki Fried, Florida’s only Democratic statewide elected official, this month threw down the gauntlet and challenged the state legislature, by announcing that she plans to gradually prevent grocery stores from distributing polystyrene food containers.

Under the agricultural commissioner proposal, grocery stores statewide would need to begin phasing out their use of polystyrene containers in 2022 and would have to stop distributing them entirely by 2028.  Her agency, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, is the state’s lead agency on food safety, regulating not only farms but also retail food vendors.

Florida currently has no law limiting the use of polystyrene, and for more than a decade it has prohibited local jurisdictions from enacting their own restrictions.  The state legislature, which has been under total Republican control for 25 years, has never allowed proposals to relax this policy to come to the floor in either chamber.

Fried has already announced plans to run for governor in 2022 against incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom she calls an “authoritarian dictator.”  Before facing DeSantis, however, she must first win a fierce contest for her party’s nomination, against former Democratic governor Charlie Crist.

Fried announced her department’s plans at a seaside news conference on Sept. 24.  Under her proposal, food vendors would need to begin reporting their use of polystyrene by December and would need to begin reducing it next year.

Legislative leaders have not yet weighed in on Fried’s proposal.  The American Chemistry Council, on the other hand, was quick to oppose it, arguing that polystyrene has been certified safe for consumer use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for more than 50 years.