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

by David A

15 December 2000 19:48 UTC

American Jews seem to be taking a different position. According to a 
talk I heard this past summer by Joe Regenstein of the Cornell Kosher 
Food Initiative, GM food has been ruled "not to be a problem" because

1) the gene is so small as to be "trivial" by Kosher Law.
2) The single gene is first amplified a number of times _in vitro_ and 
then goes through many generations of _in vivo_ growth. So the original 
gene is totally lost.

So (still from my notes and his handout), "the mainstream Jewish 
religious authorities of both groups have ruled that the process is 
acceptable regardless of where the gene comes from and in general where 
the gene goes." 

Caveats:

1) "Their rulings deal with the movement of a few genes into a product 
where the product remains what it has always been -- i.e a fish is a 
fish.
2) the production does not lead to serious problems of human health or 
environment where other religious law issues may arise.
3) ethical conclusions about nonfood biotechnology techniques may be 
different.
4) food production must still be in accordance with kosher laws."

There are a lot of details (of course), which I'm not qualified to go 
into. (Muslim dietary laws reach some different conclusions.) But the 
upshot was that GM foods mostly get a "K" label for Kosher.

Did you know: there are 390 different symbols used to designate kosher.

David


David MacClement wrote:
> · It's not just Maori who have spiritual objections to 
> genetically-modified
> food.    D.
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
> -
> 
> 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
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
> -
> sent on to the Positive Futures list by David.
> (David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
> http://www.geocities.com/davdd.geo/index.html#top
> *************************************************