Genetically Engineered Food

[Shlomo]

Anyone see this little video?

Scary stuff!

http://www.krafty.org/flash/

[JoshMan]

 

 
 Some of the testing is rather safe, at lest with trans-gen vegetables nowdays, that has helped alot with better crop yields but, the testing with kraft foods is rather creepy....you know they can grow meat in labs nowdays to?
 
 Look , anybody is not wireing up brains or growing clones for spare parts or makeing some sorta trans-gen animal/human hybreed thing.....its all good.....

 AHHHHH THEY ALREADY DID THAT!

 http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/8/14/153903.shtml

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/brain.html

 Here is a interresting read, this truthfully I'm fine with.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism

 
 

 

[syyuge]

It may take some more years to understand the negative and positive effects of the GM food.

[Rubystars]

I don't trust GMO foods. I buy organic where I can afford to.

[angryChineseKahanist]

Fillet  three headed fish

[Rubystars]

Since GMO food isn't required to be labeled for all I know they could be using human genes in it. The more likely scenario is that they have built-in pesticides which are harmful when you consume them.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Welcome to the NWO.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

What about the Halachic issues? Isn't it forbidden to mix species? What if they use pig genes? Is meat grown in labs Neveilah?

[Rubystars]

Some scientists are working on creating meat that doesn't come from animals directly but is grown from muscle cells. While a little gross at first thought, I didn't think that was necessarily a bad idea, until I got to thinking about it and realized they would probably be making human flesh for consumption too that way, since the argument would be that nobody is being killed for it, it would probably eventually be legal. So I don't think the idea should be pursued at all.

[muman613]

What about the Halachic issues? Isn't it forbidden to mix species? What if they use pig genes? Is meat grown in labs Neveilah?

Good question.... Here is what I have found concerning this:

http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/277,345/Are-genetically-modified-foods-kosher.html

Are genetically modified foods kosher?

Although there are instances of genetic material of non-kosher animals being used in kosher foods, to date, no one has succeeded in demonstrating that this renders the food non-kosher. The issues are complex, and require a thorough knowledge of halachic precedent to date.

On the other hand, are we allowed to mess around with species in this manner? This is a whole other issue. The debate centers around the words of the outstanding medieval Jewish scholar, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (known as "the Ramban" or Nachmanides—not to be confused with his predecessor, the Rambam). Concerning the Biblical prohibition of grafting trees or cross-breeding animals, he writes that this is forbidden for a reason of cosmic import: It disturbs the fundamental path of nature. He calls this act, "obnoxious and vain." Humankind, he says, is given the right to make use of the Creation and to dominate it, but not to disturb its fundamental nature. Speciation is G-d’s business, and off limits to human beings.

The Ramban has a significant retractor on this point: Rabbi Yehudah Lowe (aka "the Maharal of Prague), who lived a few hundred years later. The Maharal, with support from the Talmud, asserts that any change that human beings introduce into the world already existed in potential when the world was created. All that humans do is bring that potential into actuality. The Torah prohibition against cross-breeding is specific to Jewish people and only under the conditions specified by the Torah. Once performed, a Jew is permitted to benefit from the results. I have not come across a significant argument that the current procedures of genetic engineering constitute cross-breeding as prohibited by the Torah.

The truly crucial issues of genetically modified foods are the health and environmental issues. There is a considerable outcry from informed voices that research has been far from thorough in these areas. In fact, there appears to be strong evidence of significant dangers involved. Forty years ago, a horticulturist wrote the Lubavitcher Rebbe about his work stimulating plant growth by means of electric current. The Rebbe expressed his astonishment at the lack of long-term research concerning the effects of foods grown this way on human health, since, "For all these years, human beings have not been eating foods grown this way." Certainly, when such radical adjustments are being made to the schemes of nature as we are doing now, a responsible attitude is to progress cautiously.

However, greed and the apathy of government agencies have worked against us in these matters. As a talmudic sage, Rabbi Yaacov of Kfar Chanin, said, "Adam was told to dominate the earth. But the word 'dominate' can also be read as 'descend'. If Adam approached the earth as he was made in the image of the Creator, then he dominates over it. But if not, if he comes as just another selfish creature, then he descends lower than any of the creation."

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1423599/jewish/Can-I-Thank-Gd-for-a-Hybrid-Fruit.htm

Question:

I recently purchased a fruit that I have never tasted before called a “plumcot,” a crossbreed between a plum and an apricot. I heard that G‑d does not want us to create hybrid fruit. So my question is, if G‑d is not happy with this fruit, should I make a blessing before eating it?

Answer:

The actual crossbreeding of fruits is prohibited by the Torah in the verse (Leviticus 19:19) that says, “You shall not sow your field with a mixture of seeds.”1 In Hebrew this prohibition is called kil’ayim.

But while crossbreeding is forbidden, we are permitted to eat most hybrid fruits.2 This is because the verse says “you shall not sow,” and it does not say, “you shall not eat.”3 And as with any other fruit, we are required to make the standard blessing thanking G‑d before we eat.

You mention that this is the first time you will be tasting this fruit. This brings up another interesting question regarding the blessing to be made.

Before eating a fruit you have not yet eaten in its season, you make a special blessing called Shehechiyanu4: “Blessed are You, L‑rd our G‑d, King of the Universe, who has granted us life, sustained us and enabled us to reach this occasion” (see more here).

There are some Rabbinic authorities who are of the opinion that since one is permitted to eat hybrid fruits, one should also be able to make the Shehechiyanu blessing on them. Others point out that there is a fundamental difference between the standard blessing made on all fruits and the blessing of Shehechiyanu. Blessings before eating are acknowledgments that “the earth and all therein is G‑d’s.”5 The Shehechiyanu blessing, on the other hand, is recited to express our joy and gratitude to G‑d for having merited the special experience of eating a new fruit.

Based on the above differentiation, many authorities in Jewish law rule that one does not recite a Shehechiyanu blessing on a hybrid fruit. They reason that we cannot make a blessing of joy for having merited this experience, when this experience was made possible only by doing something against G‑d’s will.

Therefore, one should make the Shehechiyanu on a non-hybrid fruit that definitely requires the blessing, and have the hybrid fruit in mind. In this way, one satisfies both of the opinions cited above.

If one does not have another new fruit, one should not say the Shehechiyanu blessing, in keeping with the ruling that when in doubt about a blessing one refrains in order to avoid saying G‑d’s name in vain.6

Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin
Chabad.org/AskTheRabbi

FOOTNOTES
1.   Talmud, Kiddushin 39a. See also Why Aren't Jews Allowed to Interbreed Plants?
2.   Provided it is not the result of a mixture with a grapevine, based on the verse (Deut. 22:9), “You shall not sow your vineyard [together with] a mixed variety of species, lest the increase, even the seed that you sow and the yield of the vineyard, [both] become forbidden.” See citation in footnote 3.
3.   See Mishnah, Kil’ayim 8:1; Talmud, Chullin 115a; Rambam, Hil. Kil’ayim 1:7.
4.   Pronounced she-he-khee-yah-noo.
5.   Psalms 24:1.
6.   See Ba’er Heitev, Orach Chaim 225:7; Igros Moshe, Orach Chaim, vol. 2, responsum 58; Yabia Omer, vol. 5, responsum 19.

http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/32/Q1/

Dear Rabbi,

It seems that all this up and coming genetically engineered food, like the Flavr-Savr tomato, will pose new problems for kashrut. Are there any guidelines for bio-engineered produce? Say a tomato was made with a pig gene in it (a rumor I actually heard about the Flavr-Savr, and certainly not beyond the reach of genetically altered food right now), ... do you have any thoughts on this matter?

Dear Margalit,

If I understand your question correctly, you are assuming that the pig gene would constitute a nonkosher ingredient mixed together with an otherwise kosher product, and you want to know if pig gene makes the whole thing unkosher?

I've been doing some reading on genetically engineered foods, and have contacted some people in the field (not the tomato patch :-) ) and have come up with the following:

* The process of obtaining the desired gene for use is one that involves copying, and re-copying the gene in various media ( such as bacteria), so that the final, resultant gene has NO pig in it.

* The gene is not placed in each and every tomato, but rather in some seeds or plants which then produce NEW generations of tomatoes that have never come in contact with the original gene.

To ascertain the Halacha in this case, I posed your question to Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, shlita. He told me that he is not familiar with the exact process of breeding these tomatoes and the like, but his ruling is that if the gene underwent significant change after it left the pig, the tomato is indeed kosher.

[muman613]

I have not had a chance to watch this presentation but a Chabad Rabbi discusses this issue...

http://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/1848653/jewish/Is-Genetic-Engineering-in-the-Bible.htm

Does Torah allow or prohibit genetic engineering? What are the sources in Torah to argue either way?

[USAReturn2GodNow1776]

link no longer works:(

[Binyamin Yisrael]

I think there's something wrong with the site. It's a random search site including

Walk Where Jesus Walked
Walking along the Sea of Galilee You ’ll never be the same!www.goisrael.com/bestdeals

The date of Shlomo's post is 6.5 years ago so the site probably expired.

[USAReturn2GodNow1776]

Some scientists are working on creating meat that doesn't come from animals directly but is grown from muscle cells. While a little gross at first thought, I didn't think that was necessarily a bad idea, until I got to thinking about it and realized they would probably be making human flesh for consumption too that way, since the argument would be that nobody is being killed for it, it would probably eventually be legal. So I don't think the idea should be pursued at all.

Holy cow that would be so awesome if we could do that

[USAReturn2GodNow1776]

I do not believe we should try to play G-d! G-d gave us what we need, we should not tamper with G-d's gifts!

You're probably right. But maybe we could tamper just a little bit and he might let it slide!

[angryChineseKahanist]

[בַּחַמַל]

Of most concern, to me at least, is the genetically modified salmon, since this is basically my favorite thing to eat, especially when it's smoked. Halacha or not, I do not eat genetic mutants. Besides, the fish has turned carnivorous and is eating all the regular salmon, which I'm pretty sure makes it no longer kosher.

LZK, carniverous fish are Kosher.  The criteria for fish is that they must posses a combination of certain types of fins (i.e. if it only has a dorsal fin but no pectoral or anal fins, it's not Kosher) and it must be a species that also posseses scales.  That's not to say that there aren't scaleless fish that aren't Kosher.  For example, there are many species of carp that have only 1 or 2 scaled per fish, but ALL carp are Kosher...  A good example of a scaleless (And non-Kohser) fish is catfish.

[muman613]

I don't think they have made Genetically modified Gefilte Fish yet, and I hope they don't



And I just assume a Gefilte Fish has fins and scales...

[Rubystars]

Most fish aren't directly GMO but if they're not wild you have to investigate to find out whether they are raised on GMO feed.

[Rubystars]

Not an issue. It'd be like if a cow or duck or pigeon became a cannibal carnivore. It's not the natural order of the creature, andimals have a role in the environment and whn it changes is anyway, it harms the environment. Hopefully G-d helped me make this make sense.

Herbivores do eat meat sometimes. Herbivory or carnivory are just relative terms anyway because it only describes what they primarily eat. I saw ducks eating fish before. They would watch me throw bread in the water, then wait for a fish to come up for the bread then they'd grab the fish.

[muman613]

Herbivores do eat meat sometimes. Herbivory or carnivory are just relative terms anyway because it only describes what they primarily eat. I saw ducks eating fish before. They would watch me throw bread in the water, then wait for a fish to come up for the bread then they'd grab the fish.

So the idea of the 'Vorpal Bunny' is not really as far-fetched as it is supposed to be?






See also : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorpal_bunny

[בַּחַמַל]

Not an issue. It'd be like if a cow or duck or pigeon became a cannibal carnivore. It's not the natural order of the creature, andimals have a role in the environment and whn it changes is anyway, it harms the environment. Hopefully G-d helped me make this make sense.

The only meat I eat is fish.  It's not that I have anything against eating animals but I don't trust anybody's Kashrut anymore, and I don't trust the quality of meat produced from factory farming.  For the same reason, I don't eat dairy.  I try to only eat "free range" eggs because the process is more humane.  I don't care about free range per se, and I'm quite aware that free range isn't really free range, but the point is that the so-called free-range chickens are treated better.  I'll only eat their eggs, because I also have a problem with their Kashrut and not to mention the quality of the meat, which is very fatty and has many resistant bacterias due to overdosing with antibiotics.

That being said, I'll eat any fish.  I don't really care if they're farmed or wild or what they taste like, only how nutritious they are.  Of course I prefer wild-caught salmon, but a whole wild-caught salmon goes for on-average between $80 to $120.

[Rubystars]

So the idea of the 'Vorpal Bunny' is not really as far-fetched as it is supposed to be?






See also : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorpal_bunny

I don't think rabbits hunt down and eat other animals but they probably do eat some insects along with their grass.

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Anyone who has owned rabbits can tell you that they can deliver a very nasty bite.

[Meerkat]

Some scientists are working on creating meat that doesn't come from animals directly but is grown from muscle cells. While a little gross at first thought, I didn't think that was necessarily a bad idea, until I got to thinking about it and realized they would probably be making human flesh for consumption too that way, since the argument would be that nobody is being killed for it, it would probably eventually be legal. So I don't think the idea should be pursued at all.

Murder-free (legal) cannibalism is a very small price to pay for the benefits we can get by growing meat in-vitro. We are looking at 96% reduction in land usage, 99% reduction in water usage, 99% reduction in corn usage, 96% less CO2 emission. We are looking at an unlocking of an untold amount of food for a fraction of the resources. That is just one of the benefits we are looking at.