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Science

Emergence of Lab-Grown Meat Poses New Questions for Religious Leaders (wsj.com) 340

Lab-grown meat is becoming closer to a reality. But this new technology poses new questions for people who typically avoid meat for religious or ethical reasons. An anonymous reader shares a report: Lab-grown meat has sparked a debate among rabbis in Israel about whether cell-cultured is the same as conventional meat and should fall under the same guidelines for keeping kosher. "There is a disagreement about it and there is a conversation. Also, definitely, there are new questions about lab-meat," says Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, an expert on kosher tradition and bioethics. WSJ has posted a video in which you can hear more from Rabbi Cherlow.
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Emergence of Lab-Grown Meat Poses New Questions for Religious Leaders

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  • Someone Somewhere (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17, 2018 @09:44AM (#57816326)

    Someone somewhere will start a religious campaign or social media protest over it in one way or another.

    • by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @09:58AM (#57816398) Homepage Journal
      For me at least....the most IMPORTANT thing I would insist upon is that whenever artificial meat is sold, whether in a grocery store OR in a restaurant...I want by law to have it CLEARLY labeled as such.....so I can readily avoid this shit.

      If others want it, more power to them, but I want it clearly labeled so I can make that choice.

      We should all be able to easily know what our food is and where it comes from so we can better make our individual decisions on what we and our families ingest.

      • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:12AM (#57816482)

        Hmm... personally, I'd think that artificial meat would be less contaminated with antibiotics and growth hormones, but to each their own.

        • by Roger W Moore ( 538166 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @11:57AM (#57817310) Journal

          I'd think that artificial meat would be less contaminated with antibiotics and growth hormones

          Why? They have to get it to grow somehow and I don't see why, if growth hormones are legal in your country, they would not also help grow artificial meat just as much as natural meat. You might be right with the antibiotics since presumably the meat can be grown under sterile conditions but, equally, there will be no immune system to fight infections so if sterile conditions are hard to maintain for some reason I could easily see some company bathing the meat in antibiotics or worse since anti-bacterial chemicals that might kill an animal could be used e.g. the US already chlorinates its "natural-grown" chicken.

          There will always be a company willing to cut corners to reduce costs and increase profits. Apart from the above lab-grown meat will offer all sorts of potential for exposure to new chemicals in the food chain with only minimal testing on the long-term effects to human health simply because this is extremely hard to do and will never be as good as the real-life test of selling it to millions of consumers. Lab-grown meat may well be the way of the future for a lot of reasons but, personally, I would hold off buying it for a few years until the long-term and large-scale health effects have been well tested by the early adopters/guinea pigs.

        • by BlazeMiskulin ( 1043328 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @12:03PM (#57817382)

          US Federal law prohibits the use of (added) hormones in most meat animals. The use of antibiotics (for treating illness) must be followed by sufficient time to clear the system before slaughter. The EU has similar legislation in place, and just passed even stricter legislation, set to take effect in 2020.

          The meat you're buying right now is "hormone and antibiotic free"[1].

          [1] All meat contains naturally-occurring hormones to some degree

      • I would like artificial meat to be labeled as such because I would count the low environmental impact as being an advantage. I’m sure that initially it would be a ground beef replacement, and as such I would prefer it and seek it out in burger-type meals.

        It will take time before lab meat gets the mouthfeel and taste of fine steak, but here again it being lab grown is a factor that I would count as a positive in comparingwhichb steak I would buy.

        • it would be a ground beef replacement, and as such I would prefer it

          Why do you instinctively give up on quality just because something is ground?

          Ever had a spaghetti bolognese made from minced wagyu? I'm guessing not or you probably wouldn't have made that comment. Even for burgers I buy high quality beef and then mince it, and people don't understand why my burgers taste fantastic despite being the bare essentials (i.e. no fancy toppings).

          • The reason that currently available alpha-test lab meat looks like "ground" beef is that getting to the structure and mouthfeel of steaks, chops, etc. requires further development. Meat will have to be grown on a scaffolding that properly emulates cartilage and bone.

      • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:20AM (#57816530)

        Yea! I read enough Science Fiction to know anything man made with science is going to backfire and cause a dystopia type of future.

        Your statement is full of contradictions. I am fine with clear labeling, but because it is artificial you automatically place it on the avoid list, because you want to make a decision if it is healthy or not. Not based on science or research, but from a culture that is portrayed via science fiction that all things artificial is bad.

        Now if we can meet our protein requirements, with a food that meets our nutritional needs, while being easy, cheap and more environmental to create without having to raise and slaughter animals, all the better.

        Now our natural food, is filled with a bunch of toxins both natural (as every life form that exists, seem to have evolved some protection from being too healthy to predators) and artificial (pollution, medication, unsanitary living environment) that is going to kill us anyways. A clean lab grown meat, may be much better for us, and not be abomination food of the future, that we have been warn about. The main reason why it was warned about wasn't based on science, but needing something that will cause conflict in a story to make it interesting.

        • by Evtim ( 1022085 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:34AM (#57816626)

          Don't bother with his choice, it is his to make. We should have clear labels on our food, period.

          Westerners are becoming dangerously collectivists. The name of the game today is "If I don't want it, you also can't have it" Stop this shit!

          • by ranton ( 36917 )

            We should have clear labels on our food, period.

            You cannot possibly label food with every possible piece of information someone may or may not care about. Should all non-organic food be labelled non-organic? Should you label the state it was grown in? Should you label the month the animal's mother was born in? If you don't draw the line somewhere, anyone with a good PR campaign could mandate anything be present on labeling.

            Treating anything that is different than the norm as something which automatically requires new labeling requirements is not somethin

            • Should you label the month the animal's ... was born in?

              OMG, this hamburger contents was born in at the end of February? That makes it a Pisces -- it's not a hamburger, it's a fishburger! Pisces and I don't get along well -- get that sushi away from me!

        • I am fine with clear labeling, but because it is artificial you automatically place it on the avoid list, because you want to make a decision if it is healthy or not.

          The consumer is paying the bill, so they can base their decision on any damn thing they choose.

          Put a label on it.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • It is critical that genetically modified food be labeled, so that we can make informed decisions about whether we might be eating something that's been tainted by creepy science that I don't understand.

        It's necessary that the asbestos content of packaged foods be marked clearly, in large print, so that we can avoid it. How am I supposed to know how much asbestos is in my food if it isn't labeled?

        Foods that aren't made out of 100% whole grains absolutely need to have flashing lights and warning sirens
      • We should all be able to easily know what our food is and where it comes from so we can better make our individual decisions on what we and our families ingest.

        You mean like all the fucking companies who keep adding animal products and byproducts into the food they sell? As an example, I'm vegan and lactose intolerant and I have to avoid most vinegar chips because those idiots put lactose in them. I mean, I know I have to avoid cheese-flavoured chips, but vinegar? What a bunch of morans.

      • If there is enough of a market demand for "non-lab grown meat" then the suppliers of that can voluntarily label their product as such.
    • Re:Someone Somewhere (Score:5, Interesting)

      by srmalloy ( 263556 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:06AM (#57816448) Homepage
      Well, if you want to get really technical, since meat grown in a lab neither chews its cud nor has cloven hooves, all lab-grown meat will, by definition, be trayf. It may be thrashed out that the lab-grown meat, because it is essentially nothing more than a remotely-grown part of the donor animal, inherits the status of the donor animal -- so lab-grown pig tissue is still trayf, because it's still from an unclean animal -- but I don't expect that pork will be determined to be parv just because it's no longer connected to the animal the original tissue came from.
      • Ethically, lab meat is going to enjoy a big advantage. Vegetarians may start eating it because no killing is involved. But because religion is perennially behind the times on adapting to new things, a ‘revelation’ may be required for it to become accepted into dietary law.

        The same is going to hold for vegans, who are basically the religious wing of the vegetarian movement.

        • by Strider- ( 39683 )

          But because religion is perennially behind the times on adapting to new things, a ‘revelation’ may be required for it to become accepted into dietary law.

          Uh, this is the whole point of the article. The rabbinical school is she's of the curve here, debating things long before it hits mainstream. They are consulting both the secular experts and those well versed in religious doctrine. It will be interesting to see what becomes of it.

      • Well, if you want to get really technical, since meat grown in a lab neither chews its cud nor has cloven hooves, all lab-grown meat will, by definition, be trayf. It may be thrashed out that the lab-grown meat, because it is essentially nothing more than a remotely-grown part of the donor animal, inherits the status of the donor animal -- so lab-grown pig tissue is still trayf, because it's still from an unclean animal -- but I don't expect that pork will be determined to be parv just because it's no longer connected to the animal the original tissue came from.

        There's pretty much no chance that it would be unconditionally considered trayf. Like you said, it will almost certainly inherit the status of the animal that the initial cells were taken from. There is a chance that some more liberal rabbis will consider the initial cells to be such a small part of the animal that it loses all connection to the original animal, so lab-grown beef or chicken would be pareve (lab-grown pork would most likely still be trayf); there would be minority opinions on other things th

      • But it's not an animal to start with so none of your follow-up criteria even apply. Fruit has "meat" but it's fruit, not animal. Yes, the kosher rules of how the food is handled and prepared apply, but it is not an animal that must be sub-classified by its physical characteristics. Not as clear cut as you make it sound.
      • I could see it inheriting the status of the animal it comes from. Right now, the biggest issue with making cheese kosher is the rennet. This is traditionally made from the lining of a calf's stomach. The problem with this, for kashrut purposes, is that you now have rennet derived from a meat-based source mixing with dairy - and mixing milk and meat is a big kosher no-no. (Many cheese makers have gotten around this by using vegetarian friendly rennets like microbial rennet.) So I could see a lab grown steak

  • Waste of time (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17, 2018 @09:49AM (#57816346)

    Why not discuss real problems instead of spending time discussing how the invisible master in the sky may think about artificial meat?

    • They never do, why start now?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      Why not discuss real problems instead of spending time discussing how the invisible master in the sky may think about artificial meat?

      More to the point, why did editors and moderators feel this qualifies as "news for nerds" or "stuff that matters"? Oh yeah, that's no longer on Slashdot's banner. Still, why would people who are nominally scientifically minded and technologically sophisticated care about kashruth, halal, and the like?

      Then again, given the extent to which science and technology have been impeded through the ages by superstition and religious dogma, perhaps this discussion DOES belong here. Then again, (again), perhaps it's g

      • by skam240 ( 789197 )

        "More to the point, why did editors and moderators feel this qualifies as "news for nerds" or "stuff that matters"?"

        Huh? This totally news for nerds. It's literally exploring how emerging technology is affecting the world we live in. Much of the best science fiction is this.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by PseudoThink ( 576121 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @11:18AM (#57816998)
      I came here to post a similar thing. I don't mind seeing this stuff in the news, because I think it's relevant, because a large section of the world's population is religious. That said, I would still appreciate if the news headlines did less to normalize religions, since I think that is part of why it's so common.

      I suggest a new headline: "Emergence of Lab-Grown Meat Reveals Additional Contradictions In Delusional Thinking".

      Of course, no media outlet will, since religious people are a large part of the market. Alienating them would affect profits, and we can't have that. #sarcasm
  • by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @09:50AM (#57816352)

    Lab grown meat with lab grown cheese. Is it kosher? Does it need to be inspected like other sources of meat?

    And if meat isn't murder, will PETA support it?

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 )

      PETA doesn't support anything. Especially after they realize how many pests from bugs - rodents - birds. Will get killed in the process of effectively growing vegan food.

      • PETA will support it if they get 5% of the revenue.

        3% and they'll just keep their mouth shut.

    • Re:Cheeseburger? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by spazmonkey ( 920425 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @11:12AM (#57816928)
      PETA has had a nasty schism over it that may well turn into a full civil war. The members that primarily care about ethical treatment of animals welcome it. They are apparently a minority, however. Most seem VERY strongly opposed. The arguments I heard were that without cruelty being involved in the process, it weakens the arguments for the elimination of meat from society. Yes, that means much of PETA is not actually interested in animal suffering other than as another tool to eventually legislate mandatory veganism. Nutty as that sounds, that is where they see society going, and eliminating cruelty to animals removes what they see as a powerful tool for their agenda to bring society to more 'enlightened' age where meat consumption is a criminal act.
  • About the ethics (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fyngyrz ( 762201 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @09:54AM (#57816376) Homepage Journal

    But this new technology poses new questions for people who typically avoid meat for religious or ethical reasons.

    As far as ethics goes, I see growing a cell culture for food as entirely ethically positive. I see killing an animal for food as ethically dubious on its very best day. I have zero problem with cultured meat; no ethical dithering arises there at all. Make it practical, reasonably edible, and bring it on. The follow-on economic consequences, such as fewer farms where animals are packed like sardines in order to maximize production, look to me to be broadly positive. That the operators of such enterprises will suffer when they fail seems to me to be entirely appropriate.

    As to the other, I'm not religious. I have no idea how this will play out in that area.

    • by jred ( 111898 )
      I'm really curious about the ethical aspects. Ethically I don't believe in animal farming, but I don't have a problem with natural harvesting. I'm not hardcore about it, though. Does it make a difference if the source of the cloned cells was killed? Then all of it's clones would be a byproduct of the dead animal.
    • Those are pretty much my sentiments on the matter. I would add that cultured meat will probably result in a huge reduction in greenhouse gases. Not only because there won't be huge herds of cattle farting methane, but also because transporting lab-grown meat will probably be much more fuel-efficient. Not to mention the decrease in deforestation rates when cattle farms are no longer required.

      I'm also guessing that vat-grown meat won't be a vector for prion diseases. Escherichia coli and salmonella outbreaks

  • by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @09:59AM (#57816402) Homepage Journal
    Lab-grown meat will be commercially available and consumed as soon as self driving cars arrive and start driving without "safety" drivers. About the same time the Mars colony starts and the first commercial Hyperloop opens.
    • I think we need to get the fusion reactors up and running first to power all of that other stuff. Should probably be about 10 years for that I reckon.
  • Who knows? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:00AM (#57816408) Journal

    My wife is Jewish (while I'm agnostic -- former Roman Catholic).

    One thing I've come to realize about Judaism is, they have a lot of rabbis and "fervently religious" who seem to believe a big part of the faith involves a lot of poring over scriptures and making philosophical declarations about what they do or don't mean for fellow Jews.

    IMO, some of it borders on the ridiculous, with all the rituals they put themselves through to make sure they're not violating them.... But I suppose that's easy for me to say as an "outsider"? (I'm also convinced that part of the attraction to Judaism is the feeling that they're part of a closer-knit community BECAUSE they have so many strange customs. You know how HAM radio geeks seem to take a strange pride in knowing all sorts of esoteric stuff about radio waves and antenna design? Yeah ... kinda like that.)

    But frankly, the different factions of Jews (Conservative, Orthodox, Reform, etc.) appear to me to have come about because there were various levels of commitment people were willing to give to all of these rules, too. People still felt an identity as a Jew but didn't always agree on how much ritual they had to go through as part of it .....

    So I'm sure this debate on "lab grown meat" will rage on and on for them, with no conclusive answer that all Jews accept.

    • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:15AM (#57816496)
      Just settle it empirically. Feed a few Jews some lab grown bacon and see whether or not Jehovah smites them. Why risk interpreting scripture incorrectly if you can easily test it.
    • "All"? No, but there will wind up a clear decision that the overwhelming majority accept once the major halahic (jewish law) authorities finish hashing out their disagreements. It's possible this will wind up with different customs similar to how jews from the middle east, north africa, and iberia eat beans and rice during passover while jews from eastern europe don't.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Can'tNot ( 5553824 )
      Having been raised in a predominantly Christian area, something I didn't understand for the longest time was that when Jews go to ridiculous extremes to follow their rules, that's the point. It's not that they don't know it's ridiculous, it's that the more ridiculous it is the more it shows your dedication when you do it anyway.

      It's analogous to a Christian test of faith: Christians get into god's good graces through belief rather than works, so when something arises which exposes that belief as... poorl
    • But frankly, the different factions of Jews (Conservative, Orthodox, Reform, etc.) appear to me to have come about because there were various levels of commitment people were willing to give to all of these rules, too. People still felt an identity as a Jew but didn't always agree on how much ritual they had to go through as part of it .....

      Sort of. The Reform movement was the first one to identify itself as such, in the 1800's. It placed ethical behavior above ritual observance, which is a theme that goes back 2500 years; they cited Isaiah 58 [mechon-mamre.org] in particular.

      The Conservative movement was a reaction to the Reform movement. Basically, the Conservative movement acknowledged the need for greater emphasis on ethical behavior that the Reform movement was advocating for, but didn't reject the obligation to follow Jewish law like the Reform movement

    • IMO, some of it borders on the ridiculous...

      "Borders"? No it IS objectively ridiculous. You don't need the qualifier. There is no utility in most of it at all. It's just following whatever irrational thing their cult leader told them to do.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You know how HAM radio geeks seem to take a strange pride in knowing all sorts of esoteric stuff about radio waves and antenna design?

      You realize how wrong it is to compare Jews to HAMs?

    • One thing you've got to realize about Judaism is that it's massively decentralized. If you wanted a ruling on lab grown meat in Catholicism, it would be easy. The pope (or some bishop under the Pope) gives it the thumbs up and Catholics everywhere grab lab grown steaks in their local supermarkets. With Judaism, though, it's more like thousands of rabbis, each with different opinions and different numbers of people following their rulings. The Conservative and Reform movements are somewhat organized. If thei

    • As a secular Muslim who grew up pretty orthodox, it's the same thing. Lots of day to day details. Have to sit down to pee. I got some good beats for standing and peeing. Which foot to enter the washroom with. What to say before each and every activity...

      There's a million different sects and everyone kind of follows their own leader who makes whatever ruling they see fit.

      There is definite pride is following more rules.

      I'm not here to say these are bad. In some ways, it is very practical. It kind of forces th

  • by pablo_max ( 626328 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:01AM (#57816414)

    Seriously, if lab grown "meat" is able to replace the majority of animal meat in terms of safety, taste and nutritional needs, then what's the fucking issue?
    No...we better keep cutting huge swaths of forest to graze cattle so I feel a little better about what I'm eating. Better to keep risking those Chicken and Pork viruses which pass to humans because Jesus told you in the bible that you cannot eat lab grown meat... Hint, it doesn't say that.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:17AM (#57816516)

      because Jesus told you in the bible that you cannot eat lab grown meat... Hint, it doesn't say that.

      And that's not what the summary or article are saying either. It's about kosher guidelines.

      Also FYI, most Jews don't care what Jesus had to say anyway.

    • For these reasons, the major religions will come around on the issue, one by one. Here it may take a papal encyclical, there it may take a nitpicking reinterpretation of ancient dietary law or issuance of a new hadith by a popular imam.

      Only one religion will remain proudly wedded to natural cattle flesh: the GMO-hating Greens. That one will change one funeral at a time.

    • Seriously, if lab grown "meat" is able to replace the majority of animal meat in terms of safety, taste and nutritional needs, then what's the fucking issue?

      Easy answer, it doesn't. That's why there's an issue. If you can only pick a subset of the the things you list then a debate will ensue as to what to eat.

  • Eating real beef, pork, etc, is not climate friendly - producing such meat releases a lot of greenhouse gasses. If lab grown meat releases fewer greenhouse gasses then this could be one small way of not exceeding the 1.5 degree rise. This also depends on lab grown meat getting cheap enough - which it is not today.

    Would I eat lab grown meat ? Maybe: I have not tasted any - yet.

  • by apoc.famine ( 621563 ) <apoc DOT famine AT gmail DOT com> on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:09AM (#57816468) Journal

    It's only going to get worse. If we ever discover life off the earth, there's going to have to be a ridiculous amount theological retrofitting and reinterpretation that goes on. At some point, when your tool doesn't work anymore, most sane people start looking for another tool, rather than continuing to bash away ineffectively with their current one while making excuses.

    If your god didn't have the foresight to see this shit coming and provide some guidance, perhaps it's time to let go. In the last several hundred years, we've come up with a number of more modern, functional systems of understanding and ethics. We're well past the dusty myths of goat herders, as stories like these clearly illustrate. Time to let go, and catch up with modern times.

    It will be better for everyone.

    • Speak for yourself, Judaism has accepted the possibility of alien life for millenia.

    • At some point, when your tool doesn't work anymore, most sane people start looking for another tool, rather than continuing to bash away ineffectively with their current one while making excuses.

      That is a completely rational argument, but as such one that fails to grasp the basic underlying value of religion to the religious. Some people simply cannot handle the uncertainty and lack of defined purpose inherent in the random, infinite universe that the scientific worldview brings. It is the very continuity of religion that holds the value to them. The specific beliefs matter little, it is simply the need for some form of stable anchor of certainty and universal unchanging truth that brings value. If any fundamental tenets had to change, it would lose all value as a security blanket and be transitory like the rest of the cold scary universe. Hence why they work so hard to reconcile religion and observable reality in such byzantine and often absurd ways. Rigidity is required to preserve any value religion has.

    • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

      If we ever discover life off the earth, there's going to have to be a ridiculous amount theological retrofitting and reinterpretation that goes on.

      Given that the Vatican has its own observatory and hosts astronomy scientific researchers, you can be pretty sure that the Catholic Church has already worked through the implications of extraterrestrial life:
      https://www.vofoundation.org/f... [vofoundation.org]

  • Lab-grown meat is becoming closer to a reality. But this new technology poses new questions for people who typically avoid meat for religious or ethical reasons.

    No it doesn't because you cannot actually buy it. It doesn't present any questions until people can obtain it for consumption and actually are considering doing so. Honestly I doubt it's going to become a real issue because if the "ick" factor and FUD that will surround it unless it is just astonishingly delicious.

    Lab-grown meat has sparked a debate among rabbis in Israel about whether cell-cultured is the same as conventional meat and should fall under the same guidelines for keeping kosher.

    Why exactly should the rest of us give a shit about the irrational restrictions a bunch of religious crazies put on themselves regarding food? (Yes I think that if you let a rabbi or priest tel

  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:24AM (#57816550)

    If only "religious leaders" - or anybody spending more than 10 seconds per year reflecting on religious issues - spent their time and efforts trying to solve the real problems of this world...

    • If we get rid of all people who spend more than 10 seconds per year reflecting on religious issues we would have actually solved many of the problems of this world.

  • This is like thinking maintaining a few applications on a single workstation is the same as all of IT management tasks across a large multinational corporation. Current artificial meat isn't much more than some cultured cell goo, whereas an actual piece of meat is comprised of connective tissues, blood vessels, nerves, vastly more differentiated cells, and real macroscopic structure. We aren't there yet, but it has a promising future if you can look beyond the hype. im actually looking forward to artifi
  • You need to look Beyond Meat [beyondmeat.com].
    It's already here now, today. Go to A&W to try it out.

  • by Artem S. Tashkinov ( 764309 ) on Monday December 17, 2018 @10:59AM (#57816820) Homepage

    Scientific Knowledge and Progress Pose New Questions for Religious Leaders

    FTFY.

    Seriously, what is this shit doing on /.?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • They have G*D's word forbid "boiling a (kid) goat in its mother's milk" - and keep separate dinnerware related to all milk and meat just to be safe. Why should they risk the wrath of YHWH just because of vat grown meat?
  • So now we can get Moa, Mastadon and T-Rex!

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