[Avodah] Artificial Meat

[Arie Folger]

Once again, the press is talking about the possibility of producing
synthetic meat identical with the real thing with the decade. We are
not talking about soy substitutes, but about actual meat grown from
muscle cell cultures, in the lab.
Some background info:
Petri dish [LATimes] certified
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/may/22/health/he-meatlab22

I have written a blog post about some halakhic issues, and even imply
a haskafic matter, entitled "But is it Still Pork." I will gladly take
comments:
http://ariefolger.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/but-is-it-still-pork/

Two salient paragraphs:

The Talmud, Shabbat 30b, reports how Rabban Gamliel taught how in
Messianic times, our daily material needs will be met without effort,
and some of the pain and drudgery that is a hallmark of life, will
disappear ... Rabban Gamliel clearly envisages the material
transformation of the world in the Messianic era not to be any major
departure from the nature of nature today. What if that day is slowly
but surely arriving?

And:

But is it kosher?
There are several issues of concern here, which, owing to the nature
of blogs, I will only treat briefly.
   1. The source of the culture
   2. How the culture was harvested
   3. How the culture is fed
   4. Is it halakhically meat?
   5. A final note of genetic diversity

Kol tuv,
-- 
Arie Folger,
Latest blog posts on http://ariefolger.wordpress.com/
* But is it Still Pork?
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