When I first read about lab-grown meat, the first question that popped into my head was, “Is that kosher?” It’s not that I’m Jewish, it’s that the idea of being told what you can and can’t eat by God kind of fascinates me. In college, I had a Jewish friend who worked at a barbeque restaurant, and excused himself for handling pork and chicken all day by saying that it was okay because he wore gloves and “didn’t eat much.” To solve the issue of lab-grown meat’s kosher status once and for all, io9 went to Rabbi Arnold Bienstock of Congregation Shaarey Tefilla in Carmel, Indiana, who answered the question with a resounding “maybe.”
Actually, his answer was this: “The way any religious issue comes down, in the Jewish community, is the more traditional, pious Orthodox Jews have a hard time accepting change, the Reform embrace it, and the Conservatives fight about it.” He believes Reform and some Conservative Jews would accept it, and that Orthodox and more traditional Conservative Jews would reject it in the same way they reject non-kosher gelatin and non-kosher cheeses.
Tags: kosher food, lab-grown meat, meat made in laboratory, kosher meat, is cloned meat kosher, religious issues, Judaism, Rabbi Arnold Bienstock, Congregation Shaarey Tefilla, Carmel, Indiana
