GEN167 The starting point for a religious consideration of man’s relations with his natural environment is the divine blessing to man in [this verse].  [This] passage, mandating man’s conquest of nature, has recently come under attack by those concerned with protecting natural resources and environment from the excesses and abuses of man.  Some theologians have even seen in this verse sanction for man’s mindless rape of nature and an impediment to the search for knowledge and the advancement of science.  This charge, particularly as it is refuted by an analysis of the manner in which the same Biblical verse is interpreted in the tradition, is an empty one.  The Torah’s respect for non-human nature is evident in the restrictions that follow immediately upon the “subdue” commandment: man is permitted only to eat herbs and greens, not to abuse the resources of nature Genesis 1:29.  Furthermore, this mastery over nature is limited to vegetables for the first ten generations.  Vegetarianism yields to carnivorousness only after the Floor when, as a concession, God permits the eating of meat by the sons of Noah.  Even then the right to devour flesh is circumscribed with a number of protective prohibitions, such as the warnings against eating blood and taking human life Genesis 9:2-6.  The law of kashrut preserves the kernel of that primeval vegetarianism by placing selective restrictions on man’s appetite for meat.  His right to “subdue” nature is by no means unlimited.  GOODSOC 214-5