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Nov 24, 2020
lab grown meats in Tel Aviv restaurant
Growing meat in a lab from animal stem cells looks like it is going to be a big thing in the not too distant future. For the kosher consumer it raises complex halachic discussions and concerns, and being that it has been theoretical until now, as far as I am aware all halachic discussion about it has been tentative and theoretical with no real conclusions or consensus. It seems the biggest part of the debate is whether taking cells from a living animal and turning it into meat to be eaten is considered "eiver min hachai" or not.
With that brief introduction, it looks like it might be happening sooner than expected, though not yet on a massive scale of any sort.
SuperMeat is a Tel Aviv based food tech company and they are already putting out chicken meat grown from chicken cells. There is already a new restaurant in Tel Aviv, simply called The Chicken, serving this chicken, along with other plant based "meats". This isn't just the first restaurant in Tel Aviv, or in Israel, serving lab gown meats - it is the first such restaurant in the world!
Currently The Chicken isn't even charging for meals - it is serving to customers in exchange for feedback on the meats. They should get a lot of customers like this, and hopefully a lot of feedback that will help them improve their product.
While I do not know if the restaurant The Chicken is kosher or not, I suspect it is not, or at least not certified as kosher. I figure that if it would be certified as kosher, that would be massive news in the kosher industry and on the religious websites. A kosher restaurant serving kosher-certified lab grown meats? That would be massive news if it happens, as it would mean a reputable group of rabbonim, a reputable kashrut organization (and in Israel along with the Rabbanut because of the legal issue of anything declared kosher requiring a Rabbanut certification as a base) making a halachic decision on the issue of lab grown meats from cells. That would be news I would almost definitely not be able to miss, and I haven't seen any such halachic decision.
Of course, it is easy enough to go to the restaurant and check out the situation, but it seems to me that there is not even a need for that.
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Hey, welcome back, I hope you and your family are doing OK. I saw that on Israelseen, and was having some lively discussions about it in shul (masks on, no worries). The biggest part of the conversation was the unintended consequences. IDK about Israel, the the shochet business in the USA is a largely a monopoly run largely by Chassidim. The effect of that long term possibly making shechita not necessary and that whole series of jobs eliminated are what makes me think that even if it's possible to lab grow the meat that is kosher, the powers that be will never allow it to be. I was told one that an intrapreneur wnted to start a farm using a Ben-pakua to eliminate or alleviate the need here for shechita and was told not to because if successful, shechita would become a lost art. IDK if that's a true story, but the fellow that told it to me was a Chassidishe guy who was almost angry at the fact that someone wanted to change the way things are done,
ReplyDeleteinteresting. the ben pakua attempts are famous and historically have been tried a number of times. I have seen it discussed in shu"t seforim, and sometimes rabbonim were against it for a variety of reasons. I have heard about the shechita mafia (not specifically about it being chassidishe though), though I dont know that that has been the main impediment to such efforts.
DeleteJust as a point of clarification for me, do you know when Eiver min ha chai starts? I know it's a few weeks ahead, but what did Yosef see that he thought the brothers were eating? Is there a time from shchita you're supposed to wait? I don't really even know where to look, and it just sounds super gross to me in general.
ReplyDeletenot sure what you mean. as soon as it is shechted it is considered dead and eating form it would not be eiver min hachai. some say cells taken form a living animal have the status of the living animal and eating meat grown from those cells is eating meat from a living animal. Others say it is not. I think there is also a discussion o whether such meat would require shechita or not. I am no expert in these discussions and issues and only mention briefly based on what I have heard in some shiurim.
DeleteI had once heard that Yosef held he had the status of a Jew, but the brothers didn’t, and that there was some fine point of Halacha that changes the issur as to when the animal is a problem. Oh well, we have a few weeks until we get there!
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ReplyDeleteThis issue has actually been pretty well covered already. The OU (Rabbi Genack - https://www.kosher.com/shows/video/297/is-lab-grown-meat-parve) basically said that they will be certifying this meat (in principle) when it comes out, and it will be considered besari. They actually consulted with Rav Asher Weiss, who has written some teshuvot about this already (https://yuobserver.org/2018/05/will-lab-grown-meat-find-way-table/). Here in Israel, there have been rabbonim (like Rav Aviner) who have gone so far as to say that it is pareve (making a kosher cheeseburger halachically possible), but it seems likely the rabbanut will follow in the OU's footsteps and make it besari.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/928349/rabbi-dani-schreiber/discussing-judaism-s-biggest-questions-lab-grown-meat-part-4/
Just commented, but guess the ptb's thought it's too Jewish & too controversial! Well, posting it in shorter version: it's most likely not really kosher and is a disgrace how the Jew has to follow every insane thing that's going on in the rest of the world. One chilul H' after the other.
ReplyDelete