Kashrut
Among the numerous laws that form "kashrut" are prohibitions on the consumption of certain animals (such as pork and shellfish), mixtures of meat and milk, and the commandment to slaughter mammals and birds according to a process known as "shechita". There are also laws regarding agricultural produce that might impact the suitability of food for consumption.
Vegetarianism
According to Genesis, consumption of meat was prohibited to human beings (1:29-30) though Noah was given permission to consume meat after the Great Flood. Some advocates of Jewish vegetarianism, such as Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, describe vegetarianism as an eschatological ideal to which all human beings must eventually return. A number of Jewish vegetarian groups and activists promote such ideas and believe that the halakhic permission to eat meat is a temporary leniency for those who are not ready yet to accept the vegetarian diet. For some commentators, such as Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz, the complexity of the laws of sacrifice and slaughter (shechita) was intended to discourage the consumption of meat and make it less painful for the animals.