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Scientists are developing means of growing artificial meat in a petri dish. Does such 'meat' have the halachic status of meat?

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/11/us-science-meat-f-idUSTRE7AA30020111111

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Firstly, I would assume you need to start with material from a shechted animal; bu even that is not 100% clear. Interesting. Sounds like a question for a posek, not SE. – yitznewton Nov 13 '11 at 19:03
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@yitznewton the main difference between a question for a posek and one for here is what you plan to do with the information. There's no reason novel questions of halacha can't be discussed here for theory's sake. Also, if a posek has indeed addressed this question, referring to that would of course be a valuable answer here. – Isaac Moses Nov 14 '11 at 2:17
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I'm curious if this is at all comparable to case in the gemara sanhedrin where R' Yochanan and Resh Lakish would create cows through kabbalah. Also, there's another gemara in sanhedrin where meat fell from heaven. Are those halachically meat? – HodofHod Nov 14 '11 at 6:45
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@HodofHod they are 100% applicable, look it up and post it as an answer :) – avi Nov 14 '11 at 10:28
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@avi unfortunately, the gemara only seems to talk about whether they are kosher or require shechita and/or nikkur. I can't find anything regarding whether they were halachically meat or not. – HodofHod Nov 14 '11 at 17:41
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The article says that the this meat is created using stem cells from slaughtered animals:

Using stem cells harvested from leftover animal material from slaughterhouses, Post nurtures them with a feed concocted of sugars, amino acids, lipids, minerals and all other nutrients they need to grow in the right way.

When it comes to nullifying something forbidden that is mixed in with something permitted, there are several conditions that prevent nullification. On of them is called a Davar Hama'amed. From the Star-K's website:

A Davar Hama’amidis something that “creates” a particular product. A classic example of this is non-kosher animal rennet used to make cheese. Without the enzymatic reaction caused by the rennet, there would be no cheese. Hence, even if the milk is sixty times the rennet, the finished product is not kosher.

It is possible that these stem cells would be considered a Davar Hama'amed, since the whole concoction is dependent on the stem cells to exist. Since a Davar Hama'amed is never nullified, it doesn't matter how minute the stems cells are, they would still make the final product meat, and therefore subject to all the regulations thereof.

Thoughts?

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Not sure if this is a distinction w/o a difference, but the issur (rennet) encourages the dairy to mature into cheese, whereas here, the other ingredients encourage/support the stem cells themselves to grow. So the end product is directly generated from original stem cells. If anything, that should be "worse." – yitznewton Nov 14 '11 at 18:58
@Menachem, do you want to modify this answer slightly and post it to judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/14436/… ? If you want to, excellent, otherwise, I'll probably write up something similar there. – HodofHod May 1 '12 at 14:04
@HodofHod: go for it. – Menachem May 1 '12 at 17:51
This is from a completely unofficial, tenative email conversation with the Star-K: <<Rabbi Heinemann has told me in the past that if they start with neveilah meat as the source material it will not be kosher, and, even if they start with kosher meat, the growth medium also needs to be kosher. I asked him whether starting with neveilah meat would be a problem if the source material was microscopic. He was skeptical that it starts off microscopic and invisible to the naked eye. I guess that we would need to know more about the process and circumstances before making any decision.>> – ChaimKut Dec 20 '12 at 20:10
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I remember the Rav of our shul was a Rav in Switzerland during the war and they had banned shechitah. They relied for meat on a herd of specially raised cows. These were cows that as calves were still in the mothers womb, when the mother was schected. They apparently managed to get a herd of these animals and their offspring that did not require schetiah. So I wonder if you started with meat from a schected animal is a similar issue would apply.

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Does anyone know when and where this occurred? – Avrohom Yitzchok Nov 14 '11 at 17:09
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fascinating! I was aware that this was (biblically) allowed, but I was unaware that it had ever been done. Source? – HodofHod Nov 14 '11 at 17:36
@Vram - I thought it was a machlokes tannaim. – Adam Mosheh Feb 19 '12 at 23:50
(Perek Gid HaNasheh) – Adam Mosheh Feb 20 '12 at 2:21

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