{"id":1950,"date":"2014-08-07T08:24:26","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T08:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/?p=1950"},"modified":"2014-08-07T08:24:26","modified_gmt":"2014-08-07T08:24:26","slug":"is-gmo-kosher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/is-gmo-kosher\/","title":{"rendered":"Is GMO Kosher: Israel Asks Questions Others Won\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tom Brennan
\n\"Are-GMO-foods-Kosher\"<\/a>
\nToday much of the world is very much involved in discussing, labeling and outright banning of GMO foods. GMO stands for genetically modified organism. No one to date has proven or disproven the effects of long term consumption of GMO foods. Over 60 nations so far have banned import of GMO seeds, grains and products, much to the loss of their producers. China of all places halted imports from the United States of corn that was contaminated with GMO. Israel goes much further asking if certain items and processes not merely seeds and grains can be certified as Kosher. The discussion is worth our attention.<\/p>\n

Kosher\u2019s most commonly agreed upon definition is \u201cacceptable\u201d. The Book of Leviticus lists which animals, water life, and substances are permitted to be used for daily life. Israelites were also not to mix things, certain textiles, for instance. The period after the Seleucid attempts to eradicate Jewish culture and replace it with a Greek founded philosophy and outlook saw an intense turning to purity of worship and daily practices. The Pharisees emerged as leaders in this intense renaissance and the Oral Law or Talmud became their guide on not just whether or not to jump but how high and on which days of the week.<\/p>\n

Today science has developed the technology to take elements of DNA, re-arrange them and combine them with the re-arranged DNA of other living organisms. There are reports of human DNA being combined that of animals and plants. This seems to be so far our imagination that we accept these experiments as progress. And yet, has anyone considered the morality of the result? Are there any limits? What is the basis for comparison ? The Israelis use the Torah and when cases like this arise, the conditions for Kosher are applied. Kosher items must be prepared under certain conditions. To be labeled as certified involves examinations and observations.<\/p>\n

Not everything that is sold in Israel is Kosher, but those sold as Kosher must be certified through the Office of Chief Rabbi and labeled as such. So far one interesting situation has been reported about Kosher \u201cpork\u201d. Apparently a producer has developed a pork-like tasting and textured food product made from geese. Through use of approved flavorings it mimics pork in certain dishes. This seems like a case of where spirit of the law is in conflict with actual conditions of manufacture. There have been few reported developments in the human and non-human DNA mingling. It will be challenging to see if and when any of these are brought before the Chief Rabbi\u2019s office for certification.<\/p>\n

What is interest here is the way a secular state employs a standard to measure products and processes against and still maintain compatibility with other nations and with other faiths that do not require dietary laws as a form of national identity. In Western nations in most cases science and technology have set themselves apart from any moral guideposts and the public generally accepts their activities.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see how Israel manages the expanding world of GMO development and how Kosher standards will be applied to an almost science-fiction type of experimentation in DNA and gene mixing. Much of this is quite frightening to say the least.<\/p>\n

Western culture has totally adopted a science and technology based mentality and placed its religious and moral standards at a second place at best position. This is secularism at its peak. The challenge we see is to re-examine our faith in Biblical principles and apply to places where our culture has excluded them. Israel\u2019s system for certifying foodstuffs, ingredients and processes uses Biblical standards to form the foundation for the labeling decision. We can learn much from this process. <\/p>\n

Although many Christians do not observe dietary restrictions for religious reasons, Jews do. They apply a regular standard and have a foundation from which they work. In a world where science and technology seem to be unquestioned, perhaps restoring the Bible to its rightful place is a good start, maybe we need to be more \u201cKosher\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"flickr\"<\/a>\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"flickr\"<\/a><\/div>Follow News from JerusalemShare this page with your friends
\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tom Brennan Today much of the world is very much involved in discussing, labeling and outright banning of GMO foods. GMO stands for genetically modified organism. No one to date has proven or disproven the effects of long term consumption of GMO foods. Over 60 nations so far have banned import of GMO seeds, more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[349,625,244,238,239,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-1950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-gmo","9":"tag-israeli-news","10":"tag-israeli-food","11":"tag-kosher","12":"tag-kosher-food","13":"tag-news-from-jerusalem","14":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1952,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions\/1952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}