'Why GM food isn't kosher'

My article below was published in this week's Jewish Chronicle (27 April 2007). It explores Jewish perspectives on the genetic modification (GM) of our food in the context of the imminent GM potato trials in England. The scientific, environmental, economic and health risks of GM have long been highlighted by environmental groups, but religious voices have been silent or confused. I hope that this stimulates discussion in the UK Jewish community who have been relatively absent from the GM debate. For a more detailed discussion of the Jewish case against GM read Treif Tomatoes by Noam Dolgin of the Teva Learning Center.

Why GM food isn’t kosher
Jewish Chronicle 27/04/2007
Michael Green has doubts about new genetically modified produce now reaching our farms

It is no secret that Jews like to eat. But if German chemical company BASF has its way, then extra apple sauce is not the only thing that we shall be eating with our latkes at Chanucah. From this month, farms in England are allowed to grow genetically modified (GM) potatoes, which scientists at BASF claim will be disease-free. Their new spuds have been modified with two genes from a wild Mexican potato. Not only could this protect crops from the fungal disease blight which caused the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, says BASF, but GM potatoes will also increase choice. Being spoilt for choice is a feature of any good Jewish kitchen, so what could be better than an assortment of latkes —traditional, organic and, now, GM latkes fresh from the laboratory?

Genetic modification (or engineering) sounds like a precise scientific technique. But there is much that scientists do not know about the impacts of this risky and unpredictable process on our food — and our health. The eventual location of the new gene is entirely random, resulting in the physical disruption of other genes and effects on the plant’s biological processes. At the heart of the debate on GM, environmentalists have called for an outright ban. But what view does Judaism hold about genetically modifying our staple foods — and will they be kosher?

A long tradition of Jewish thinkers has emphasised the importance of protecting the natural environment, but Jewish voices have failed to reach a consensus since GM food hit the shops in 1996. The leading American kashrut authority, the Orthodox Union, has ruled that genetic engineering “does not affect kosher status” because genetic material is “microscopic”. However, other Jewish groups such as the Teva Learning Centre (an environmental institute in the USA) dispute this and consider that GM violates the biblical prohibition against kilayim, the mixed breeding of crops and livestock.

The Torah commands: “You shall not let your cattle mate with a diverse kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed” (Leviticus 19:19) and “You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed” (Deuteronomy 22: 9-11). These prohibitions, often cited as a warning against genetic modification, are based on the idea that God has made distinctions in the natural world: as the Soncino Chumash explains, each species was commanded to reproduce “after its kind”, so it is wrong to try to mix them. Reflecting on the sanctity of the Sabbath, Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks reminds us that there is a “limit to our intervention in nature and the pursuit of economic activity”. But what are these limits? Jewish thinkers have barely acknowledged this quandary, let alone offered a solution.

Other faiths have also been perplexed by biotechnology. In 2003, the Vatican failed to deliver an official judgment, instead recommending that GM crops should “not be abandoned”. The world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia, has given the green light for its citizens to eat GM foods. However, last October, the UK Islamic Medical Association wrote to our own Government, declaring that GM food is “against the basic Islamic teachings, against God and the Qur’an… These are all the beliefs of 1,400 million Muslims in the world.” Even scientists disagree on whether GM is safe. The Royal Society believes that “there is no credible evidence that human health can be damaged” by eating GM DNA. However, the only three animal-feeding tests for GM potatoes have all shown negative health effects. Last month, Dr Irina Ermakova of the Russian Academy of Science declared that GM potatoes were “toxic” to lab rats and “cannot be used in the nourishment of people”.

Widespread consumer opposition to GM to crops and the media controversy over “Frankenstein foods” have often been driven by fears of meddling with nature. Of course, humans have intervened with nature since we were hunter gatherers. Centuries of agriculture have transformed our natural environment into a hybrid countryside shaped by both human and non-human forces. We exist in a symbiotic relationship with nature — the land sustains us and therefore we have a responsibility to preserve it. As Jonathan Sacks puts it, God and man are “partners in the work of creation”. The ancient covenant is mirrored in the modern concept of sustainability which seeks to “meet the needs of the present [generation] without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Or, in biblical terms, the environment must be preserved l’dor v’dor, from generation to generation.

The prohibition of kilayim, or hybrids, is sometimes considered an irrational law, but it raises the rational question of natural boundaries. Reflecting on kilayim, the historian Josephus warned that: “Nature does not rejoice in the union of things that are not in their nature alike.” Of course, people have been breeding livestock and plants for centuries, irrevocably blurring the boundaries between human endeavour and the natural or divine. But GM represents a radical departure from traditional breeding practices and poses a high risk of unintended side-effects. It is a technology inspired by the laboratory, not by nature.

Several blight-resistant potato varieties have already been developed by conventional non-GM breeding, so why push the boundaries further? Perhaps both rabbis and scientists should give some thought to Josephus’s warning.