I listened to a CBC interview on Sunday and its topic was whether Muslims and Jews would eat Impossible Pork due to religious reasons.
When Impossible Pork was unveiled, the company said it was designed for halal and kosher certification. But Impossible Foods now says it's not moving forward with those certifications "as we wish to continue to use the term 'pork' in our product name," and "the authorizing bodies will not certify a product called 'pork.'" Even though the product is called "Not Possibly Pork" as in "Impossible Pork".
This is fascinating. Here we have a question at the individual level that relates to personal faith and belief. These are questions that can't get much better. Why is that? This is in the realm of "speaking makes it so." To cause something to come into existence by the speaking of it. My comparison is this. When God said "Let there be light, there was light". And so if we speak this is "pork", then it is pork. Whether it is impossible, plant-based pork, it is our speaking makes it pork. Having pork in the name - that's the argument of the Islamic Services of America and Orthodox Union Kosher organizations for not certifying it.
To me this is an amazing existential situation. I think of this as Adam in the Garden of Eden Syndrome.
The articles by Muslims/Jews say they don't eat pork. They don't need to eat pork. They don't want to eat pork. There are so many relationships to not eating pork that it makes it sound like a fascination with pork. Like the temptation in the Garden of Eden, this fascination can become the transgression itself - a wanting to know, a longing, a wishing.
What if the product had been named really yummy food? with no intention of marketing it as a pork comparison. Then there would be no existential question at all. A comparison to pork must be present. And how would a non-pork-eating Muslim make the comparison without any experience of it?
What if the product has been around for a thousand years through one country's cuisine, and there was no comparison to be made with pork? There is no existential question. There would be no comparison to be made for the Jew or Muslim to judge. We'd all just be eating these dishes.
What if these ingredients can be gathered together and one can make the product oneself? This is an interesting scenario. Only if I compare it to pork, then it has a the potential to become a challenge of faith and discipline.
One Muslim writer of an article concluded with this: "Given the plethora of other food options that aren't accompanied by a twinge of guilt, something tells me I won't be walking into a restaurant and ordering an Impossible Pork sandwich anytime soon. At least not until my brain -- and stomach -- catch on."
That mention of guilt. There it is. Isn't this so remarkable a dilemma we could never have predicted.
These little piglets were at Our Gate to Your Plate Farm in Grimsby about 10 years ago.
