Scientists have recently discovered a way to grow pork in a petri dish—a technique to turn pig stem cells into strips of meat that could one day offer a green alternative to raising livestock. Although in-vitro pork won’t be reaching supermarket shelves anytime soon, it’s not too early to ask the inevitable question: Would it be kosher to eat lab bacon?
According to the rules, if a mammal is to be considered kosher, it must have cloven hooves and chew cud. This is why beef is okay, and hare and pork aren’t —- no hooves and rumination, respectively. Kosher meat also has to be slaughtered in a very specific way, involving slitting the animal’s throat with a sharp, non-serrated knife, and removing as much blood as possible.
So, what happens when there’s no animal to slaughter? Vat meat can’t have hooves, and it certainly doesn’t ruminate. Does that mean that no cultured meat is kosher? Or that all of it is? Or does it stick to its parent species?
We talked to Rabbi Arnold Bienstock of Congregation Shaarey Tefilla, a Conservative Synagogue in Carmel, Indiana, and asked his opinion on the matter. “The way any religious issue comes down, in the Jewish community, is the more traditional, pious Orthodox Jews have a hard time accepting change, the Reform embrace it, and the Conservatives fight about it,” said Bienstock, with dry humor. So it will vary greatly along the various degrees of observation.
Bienstock thinks the Conservatives will be hesitant to adopt artificially raised meat, unless it’s seen as something completely different to its original form. The Rabbi compared this to two previous cases with kosher food: cheese and gelatin. Both contain animal products which may not be kosher, so specific variations have to be made for people who are strictly Orthodox. On the other hand, the Conservative movement viewed these objects as being so far changed and removed from their original source, that they don’t need to be kosher. Says Bienstock, “these elements are re-defined as not really being meat, as the substance is so incredibly transformed. So using [this technology] the Conservative movement might say it’s not really meat because it doesn’t come from an animal.”
January 28th, 2010 | 1:21 pm
Maybe I’m bringing too much of my own Catholic guilt to the table, so to speak, but I think this is a situation – not unlike kosher Baco-s – in which one might be grasping after an experience that is forbidden. Is it right to wish to experience that which is forbidden (i.e. sinful) even if it is, in technical terms, OK? I just wouldn’t feel good about it. And kosher Baco-s have bugged me for a long, long time.
January 30th, 2010 | 4:59 pm
Ellyn:
One of my Grandparents said that if you look too closely, even water is “Treif” (not kosher).
As an example, observant Jews cannot eat crustaceans. Only recently, it was discovered that NYC water had microscopic crustaceans floating/swimming in it which caused many Jewish schools to install filters in the plumbing system.
One must make ones own, or have guided decisions in life. It seems that the more we learn about our world, we have the choice to remain static in our approach, or modify how we do things.
Remember, a tree that doesn’t sway in the wind, will be uprooted.
Using the technology available today, many food stuffs will need to be reexamined. For example, we are on the cusp of producing quai artificial meat from “starter cells” taken from animals. Does it mean that we can eat those products according to traditional methods of Jewish or Muslim law?
It opens up a raft of questions.
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