Kashrut and the Rise of Artificial Meat (S1, E33)

As we approach the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, new questions about day-to-day life are arising. In previous generations, meat was, well, meat! It came from a living animal. In the case of kosher meat, it was slaughtered according to the tenets of the Jewish tradition. Today, however, new artificial meats are coming to market. Some, like Impossible Beef, are plant-based. Plant-based food should, in theory, be considered kosher so long as it is made under rabbinic supervision. But what about new artificial meat synthesized from genomic sequences derived from real animals but grown in a lab, not as an animal? What if the genomic sequence used comes from a pig, a shark, or some other non-kosher animal? It was not slaughtered... It was never part of an unclean animal's body... What does Judaism have to say about that? Tune into this episode to hear this provoking discussion!