[pf] Submission by _Jews_for_GE-Free_Food_, to NZ's Royal Commission on GM

by David MacClement

15 December 2000 19:01 UTC

· It's not just Maori who have spiritual objections to genetically-modified
food.    D.

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At 23:28 15/12/2000 +1300, David Weinstein wrote, to GreenViews-NZ, with
Subject:
 [GV] /Jews for GE-Free Food/ submission to Royal Commission on GM

Submission to the Royal Commission on Genetic Engineering 
from the group Jews for GE-Free Food

1. For us as Jews, GE food is not only potentially hazardous, but also
unacceptable on religious grounds, and they would need (at the very least)
to be comprehensively labelled as such.
 
2. The simple fact of taking a gene the from any organism and putting it
into any other organism is unacceptable to us.
 
3. As gene replication is primarily the copying of an informational code.
The copy fully replicates the structure of the original gene and so can
produce the same substances as the original.  So waiting rabbit information
(for example) is put into a zucchini plant, it is still rabbit information.
 And while the implantation is on a microscopic level, it has macroscopic,
clearly observable effects.
 
4. So organisms implanted with genes of unkosher animals are themselves
rendered unkosher (that is, unacceptable in Jewish law).
 
5. The Torah (the .Old Testament.) explicitly forbids certain forms of
cross breeding (Leviticus 19:19*. Note: Textual References are expanded on
below) and further Jewish interpretation of the law extends this
prohibition in a broad manner. These prohibitions extend to all animals and
to grafting one species of plant to a member of a different species.
 
6. The Torah.s concern here is with upholding species integrity.  Therefore
transgenic foods in general are halachically (i.e. in Jewish Law)
unacceptable.
 
7. There is a theological or .natural law. objection to GE implicit in the
commitments in Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:9*. The purpose of these
commandments is to preserve the essential nature are of God.s creation.  It
is a prohibition against .playing God. by means of the creation of new life
forms.
 
8. The potential environmental effects of GE are of real concern to us.
This is a technology that could exert some far-reaching and disastrous
effects upon the world in which we live, and Jewish tradition demands that
we take care to avoid unnecessary risks to our health and safety.  As Jews,
we believe that endangering people with unknown risks is immoral.  These
rules are based on a number of Biblical principles, e.g. .take care are to
guard yourselves" (Deut 4:15*) and .do not destroy. (Deut 20:19*).
 
9. While we do not worship the natural world, lead you were do revere it
(Gen 1:28*) and we are away are of our ecological relationship to all that
is around us.  We believe we are the caretakers of the world in which we
are participants.  Time and again in the Torah we are admonished to care
for the natural world ( Exodus 23:10*; Lev 25:3-4; * Lev 25:23*; Deut
20:18*; Deut 22:6*).
 
10. There are various commentaries on the the Torah, which act as the
regulations to administer the original laws. Many of these admonish us to
respect the integrity of the natural world (Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah
7:13*).  The great and revered Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (1195 . 1270) also
taught that mixing up the species causes a deep disruption in the subtle
fabric of nature. 
 
11. The basic laws of Kashrut (to do with Kosher, or acceptable food) - to
avoid eating certain animals and fish, keeping only domestic animals for
food (wild animals may be killed only in self defence), and not mixing milk
with meat (to mixed the freely given milk with the dead/is seen as
literally adding insult to injury) - show a respect for nature.
Participation in, rather than control of, the natural world is encouraged.
We therefore advocate a science of participation rather than a science of
control.  The introduction of GE altered species into the environment
should only be permitted (if at all) after the most rigorous testing as to
their safety to humans and environment as a whole.
 
12. From a Jewish point of view it is vital that GE products the labelled
as such.  Not only is this so we can identify and avoid them in keeping
with our beliefs, but the concealment of vital information (and this
information is vitally important to the consumer) is a violation of the
prohibition against deceitful advertising (Lev 19:11 *, and Shulchan Aruch*).


Submission by Jews for GE Free Food

Hilary Philips
Eileen Rothman
Ron Resnik
Meliors Sims
Jude Berman
Sue Berman
Paul Ketko
Dr. S. W. Lautensach 
Oliver Hoffmann
David Weinstein
and others

30 November 2000
 
Attachment 1

Textual Resources

1. Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13

The Holy blessed one took the first human, and passing before all the trees
of the Garden of Eden, said "See my works, how fine and excellent they are!
 All that I created, I created for you.  Reflect on this and do not corrupt
or desolate my world; for if you do there will be no one to repair it after
you."

2.  Genesis 1:28

God bless them and God said to them, "Be fertile and increase; fill the
earth and superintend it; and take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds
of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth..

3.  Exodus 23:10

And six-years you shall sow your land, and gather in the increase of it,
but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fellow, that the poor of
your people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat.
(Note: "beasts of the field" refers to wild not domestic animals.)

4.  Leviticus 19:11

You shall not steal; neither shall you deal falsely, nor lie one one to
another.

5.  Shulchan Aruch . YD228

Yoreh Deah: The honest tradesmen does not indulge in deceitful advertising.

6.  Leviticus 19:19

You shall observe my laws.  You shall not let your cattle mate with a
different, kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; you
shall not put on cloth from a mixture of two kinds of material.

7.  Leviticus 25:3

Six-years you will sow your field, and six-years you shall prune your
vineyard,and gather in its produce.  But in the seventh year shall be a
Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the lord; you shall
neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.

8.  Leviticus 25:23
And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for you
are strangers and settlers with Me.

9.  Deuteronomy 20:18

When you shall beseige the city a long time in making more against it to
take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them;
for you may eat of them, but you shall not cut them down; for is the tree
of the field man, that you beseige it?
10.  Deuteronomy 22:9

You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed, else the crop -
from the seed you have sown -and the yield of the vineyard may not be used.



Shalom

David Weinstein
Wellington Greens Executive Networker
Tel 04 233 0003 home Cell 025 892 665

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sent on to the Positive Futures list by David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
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