Q&A: Cultured Meat and Kosher Pork
Originally published:
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Cultured Meat and Kosher Pork
Question
Hello, I wanted to ask about the fine line between cultured meat and real meat: why is cultured meat kosher, while actual meat from a non-kosher animal is not kosher?
If, for the sake of argument, hundreds of years from now it becomes possible to print an entire pig from scratch (dead, not alive) with a 3D printer, would it be kosher?
Answer
If it is made from molecules, then there is no doubt it would be kosher to the highest standard. If it is made from a cell taken from a pig that was alive, there is room for hesitation, and it seems to me that the halakhic decisors have also disagreed about this.