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

by David A

17 December 2000 15:41 UTC

Besides, why shouldn't Jews be themselves responsible for determining 
the nature of their food? They don't demand that non-GM foods be labeled 
as kosher or nonkosher.

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
>