I can haz cheeseburger? The kosher conundrum of cultured meat (h)

Rabbi Daniel Nevins, The Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards; Yoreh De'ah 81.2017, "The Kashrut of Cultured Meat." You can find the full responsum at www.rabbinicalassembly.org.

Why promote cultured meat (vs pastured meat)?

• General considerations:

  • Ethics

  • Health

  • Environment

  • Ecology

  • Efficiency

• Classic Jewish Considerations:

  • Minimizing animal suffering (tzar ba'alei chayim)

  • Promoting human health (v'nishmartem me'od et nafshoteichem)P

  • Protecting natural resources and the enrionvment (bal tashchit).

Halakhic concerns should focus on:

• production methods
• the species of animal used
• the prohibition of removing a limb or flesh from a living animal
• the kashrut of ingredients used in the growth medium and additives
• whether it should be considered to be basar/meat or pareve/neutral

Must the original cells used to produce cultured meat come from a kosher animal?

אבר מן החי / A Limb Taken From a Living Animal

What constitutes the limb that it is forbidden to detach from a living animal?

מה טיבו של זה? / The Question of Identity Across Generations

Species identity across generations is compelling for several reasons.

1. This is the default position of both biology and halakhah, summed up nicely in the Mishnah at Bekhorot 1:2.

2. We might compare the live DNA preserved in these cells to the halakhic concept of a “sustaining substance.” (davar ha-ma'amid). In rabbinic sources this is a minute additive that nevertheless has a pronounced, durable and readily discernible impact, such as rennet on cheese or gelatin on gelatinous foods.

3. The halakhic concept of a “novel entity" (d'var chadash) is usually applied to a substance that has passed through an inedible state, but in this case the product would be modified at the genetic level, so that the descendant cells might arguably be deemed a new substance However, single-gene modifications do not suffice to change the species identity of the organism.

Rabbi Ze’ev Weitman

"However, it appears that the matters are indeed comparable, for just as the earth provides a plant with the nutrients needed for it to grow and develop, exactly so with cultured meat—there the growth and development are made possible due to the materials that nourish the cell and serve it as a growth platform. And if a plant which grows and develops from a seed is considered to be a new entity (lit. new face) it would appear that so too meat which grows and develops from a cell may be considered like a new entity."

Cells are cultured over time to produce beef remain identified with the same species of cow, but not with the experience of the specific cow or cows from which they ultimately derived, just as ears of barley lose the ritual tithing status of earlier generations, while remaining barley.

נותן טעם לשבח / Non-Kosher Additives

How does an edible biomass (i.e., meat) of trillions of cells develop from a few original stem cells?

• Sponge-like matrix perfused with a culture medium providing nutrients and growth factors / commonly such a medium contains fetal bovine serum (which raises kashrut issues).
• Gels in petri dishes are often made from porcine sources.
• Plant-based replacement additives are possible and desirable (cheaper, safer, vegetarian friendly)

  • Dr. Amit Gefen of Technion University has proposed using apples as a base.

Should Cultured Meat Be Considered “Meaty” from a Kashrut Perspective?

Precedent: Rennet and Gelatin

• Substances derived from an animal source, which are not themselves considered to be “meat”
• After extensive processing, considered by some halakhic authorities to have become דבר חדש, a “novel entity,” and therefore neutral/pareve.
  • Gelatin and rennet pass through an inedible and even a toxic stagehand have thus arguably removed the substance from the status of food and turned it into a new substance.
  • Rennet extracted from the lining of a calf’s stomach has precedent to be considered “like wood.”
• Chymosin, a microbial enzyme harvested from ruminant animals, but since 1990 cultured through recombinant genetic engineering, is employed to produce kosher cheeses; chymosin itself is considered kosher and pareve.

Halakhic Conclusions

• Should cultured meat become a viable consumer product, it will be important to ascertain that it derives from a kosher species of animal and that the growth medium and any additives be plant-based or synthetic and certified kosher. Indeed, the entire process will require kosher supervision.

• Cultured meat derived from cells taken from a kosher species of animal will not be prohibited as a limb or flesh taken from a living animal, because the original cells will not be eaten, and they alone would not suffice to create the final product.

• While cultured meat might arguably be deemed pareve like eggs, this is a matter of doubt, and we rule stringently when in doubt over a biblical prohibition. Moreover, because the product is designed to mimic the biological structure and eating experience of pastured meat, it would be confusing for one meat to be “meaty” and another apparently identical meat to be pareve. Cultured meat should be designated as “meaty according to the rabbis” even though there will be no need for kosher slaughter, inspection for injury, deveining, soaking or salting to remove blood.

• If cultured meat fulfills the promises of being less cruel to animals, less destructive to the environment, and more healthful to consume, then it will be not only acceptable, but even preferable to eating conventional pastured meat.