Team:NYC Software/Food Practices

Overview

While scientific advances constantly generate new opportunities and products that once were even beyond imagination, it is a major challenge for those who root themselves in time-honored moral traditions to think about how these new discoveries should be approached.

Vegans, vegetarians, and eaters of kosher and halal all scrutinize the origins of their food before consuming it. If offered snacks don't conform to the guidelines they live by, they won't eat. The preparation of meat for these groups is particularly tricky, as it either involves careful ritual slaughter, in the cases of kosher and halal, or a prohibition against meat altogether, in the cases of veganism and vegetarianism.

One recent US patent describes six methods for producing meat in a laboratory. The possibility of growing meat in petri dishes has already garnered the attention of groups concerned with the ethical treatment of animals; it would mean that meat could be produced with virtually no opportunity for cruelty or mistreatment of animals. But one salient question has not yet been approached: Is such a product truly meat?

While such questions are, in general, not very useful, when it comes to translating modern concepts into the language of ancient traditions, we are forced to clearly define the objects we are dealing with. As such, we have approached leading thinkers in the Jewish and vegan communities whose expertise includes both the legal aspects of their respective traditions as well as the scientific knowledge necessary to comprehensively consider the issues.

Main Points

Is such a product kosher? Is it acceptable for a vegan?
Is such a product halakhically considered meat? Could it be eaten with milk?
If stem cells could be induced to differentiate as pig cells, could we produce kosher pork, or other non-kosher animals?
Is the method of cell harvest important? How does the prohibition against eating from a live animal impact this issue?
Are cells considered animal by-products like milk or toenails, which would be pemritted or are they meat, which would be prohibited?
Would the relationship of the initial cell sample to the finished product be viewed in a way that resembles
the relationship of animal rennet to the cheese it produces?
If the product is considered meat, can kosher meat ever be produced from an animal without ritual slaughter?
Such exceptions are extremely rare; the only case to date is that of a late-term fetus discovered in the uterus of its slaughtered mother -
Is that case a relevant precedent?
Does circumventing the ritual slaughter mean losing an important moral lesson or lessons
that the halakha teaches through demanding that we slaughter our meat under carefully regulated conditions?

People to Query

Rabbi Moshe David Tendler (emailed, responded, will have meeting soon)
Rabbi J. David Bleich (no contact yet)
Vegan authority?

Articles

US Patent: Method for producing tissue engineered meat for consumption