QUESTION: If scientists are able to ‘grow’ meat from cells in a laboratory, will I be able to enjoy a cheeseburger in future?

An Orthodox view:

it appears the future is closer than you might think.

A recent position paper published by leading rabbis in Israel ruled that given advances in lab meat production, it would be permissible to eat this product with cheese.

In the early stages of lab meat production, the cells used to produce the meat were taken from live animals. A significant rabbinic opinion held the resultant product be treated as meat. However, given that the process now involves the use of pre-embryonic cells, rabbinic opinion has shifted and does not consider the product to be meat. The ruling compares the pre-embryonic cells to a fertilised chicken egg, which in Jewish law has the status of parev.

While the notion of lab grown meat is a recent phenomenon, and one that our ancestors could not have seriously contemplated, the Talmud nonetheless provides a fascinating, if bizarre account, that might be pertinent to the case under discussion.

The Talmud tells of Rabbi Chanina and Rabbi Oshaya, who through the generative power of “the Book of Creation” (a mystical work) were able to produce — out of thin air — a calf, which they then proceeded to eat (Sanhedrin 65b)!

Later rabbinic authorities, such as Rabbi Isaiah Halevi Horowitz (known as the Shelah Hakadosh, died 1630), held the view that a calf produced in this way would not require ritual slaughter, as it could not be deemed a proper animal, despite its appearance (and presumably taste).

However, the author of the Pitchei Teshuvah (Rabbi Abraham Hirsch Eisenstadt, died 1868), while agreeing in principle with Rabbi Isiaah Halevi, nonetheless disagrees in practice, in order to avoid what is known as marit ayin — misleading an unassuming public, which has no way of knowing that what appears to be an ordinary calf, is in fact of an otherworldly provenance.

Whatever one’s view might be of a magically produced calf, the principles at stake are not that different to those relating to lab-produced meat.

While, on a practical level there is a strong body of opinion that would treat lab meat (from pre-embryonic cells) as parev, one might still need to approach this new product with caution and not eat it alongside a dairy product in the presence of the unassuming. This need for discretion will eventually prove unnecessary if and when the use and public awareness of parev meat becomes widespread as plant based synthetic meat products, which are widely eaten alongside dairy.

Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer is the Neubauer executive director of Hillel, Tufts University

A Progressive view:

V Laboratory-grown meat is already a reality. It works by taking cells from live animals and then growing muscle from them. So although the meat is artificially constructed, it is sourced from meat and so is still meat.

There are two big advantages to this process: first, it avoids the need to kill animals and risk any cruelty involved; second, it means there is less need for massive herds of living animals and, in the case of cows, much less methane gas emitted, which is so harmful to the environment.

In addition, it should bring the price of meat down, as the costs of farmland, the feed, production chain and slaughter will all be bypassed. This might help those otherwise unable to keep kosher.

Another new development, 3D-printed meat, is in its infancy now, but is likely to increase greatly. This will also avoid transports costs (and petrol fumes in the air). However, it, too, is derived from actual meat.

Of course, in both cases, if the meat is from a forbidden animal, such as pork, then it would be banned for Jews. But if the cell had been taken from a permitted animal that was alive, then does that break one of the basic laws of kashrut: not eating from a living animal? Or does that not apply if most of it was lab-grown?

It would also mean no shechitah was involved. Would this make it inedible for Jews? What if, instead, the cell was taken from a shechted animal, albeit immediately after death so as to maintain its viability for production purposes?

In both cases, this would be a classic instance of  “where there is a rabbinic will, there is a rabbinic way” ie if rabbis felt that the advantages of such meat (no killing, better for the environment, lower costs) were so important that this new invention should be adopted, then Orthodox rabbis would probably find some proof-text allowing it, while Reform and Liberal rabbis would be likely to permit it on those merits.

But even if this was the case, it would still count as meat, so your cheeseburger would not be possible.

All of this assumes there is value in keeping kosher: some would cite it as a divine command, though I see its importance as daily identification with Judaism and Jewish values, so that they permeate our life at all times and wherever we are.

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain is rabbi of Maidenhead (Reform) Synagogue

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