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

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.

16 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. Someone Somewhere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Someone Somewhere by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      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.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    2. Re:Someone Somewhere by Calydor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not sure why you think you should have any control or knowledge about your GRAPHICS CARD if your purchase it. If you want to control what you PUT IN YOUR COMPUTER, you should BUILD it yourself. Otherwise you are being sold PLASTIC AND PRECIOUS METALS and nothing more. Nobody is making you buy it.

      How does that logic sound? Look forward to getting a refurbished Voodoo II card next time you 'upgrade'.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    3. Re:Someone Somewhere by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Someone Somewhere by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    5. Re:Someone Somewhere by Evtim · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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!

    6. Re:Someone Somewhere by BlazeMiskulin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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

  2. Waste of time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Waste of time by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because we have to start somewhere. This is essentially grownups acting like little Timmy, claiming that his invisible friend Bob said that broccoli is bad.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Re: What disagreement could there be? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Actually the question is more is it meat at all under the Kosher requirements.

    It isn't slaughtered, it is harvested from cell cultures.

    There is no blood to drain.

    Does that make it outside of the rules entirely?

  4. Why is there even a debate about this? by pablo_max · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  5. Lack of divine foresight by apoc.famine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
  6. Not a problem unless you can buy it by sjbe · · Score: 1, Insightful

    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 tell you what to eat you are crazy) Unless they are trying to interfere with what I eat I don't really care about this at all any more than I care about whether or not someone goes to Weight Watchers. Their problem, not mine.

  7. Re:Cheeseburger? by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As someone who cares about animals being treated ethically and humanely, I hate PETA. Their extremist actions paint everyone who cares about animals in a bad light. If lab grown meat tears PETA to bits, I'll welcome lab grown meat for multiple reasons.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  8. Why less contaminated? by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  9. Re:What disagreement could there be? by alexo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Thanks for being willing to listen to my opinions on why pedophilia is good for children.

    Listening to your opinions can enhance our understanding of the pedophile mind, which can lead to better approaches to prevention and treatment.