While controversy continues in the Western world over genetically modified livestock in the food chain, China – with the help of a South Korean research institution-- is upping the ante on producing more high-quality meat at cheaper prices through a mass cloning program.
China is currently billing the new facility as the “world’s largest cloning factory,” not as the “only” or first such factory as others already do exist. Anyway, the factory is expected to start producing next year with the first batch of product being cloned cattle.
“The first animal to come down the line will be Japanese cows, in an attempt to lower the price of high-quality beef in the Chinese market, Dr. Xu Xiaochun, chairman and CEO of Boyalife, told Chinese media, according to a report in Quartz. “[We are] now promoting cloned cows and cloned horses to improve China’s modern animal husbandry industry,” Xu said.
Besides the cloning production line, which presumably will expand to clone pigs, sheep and other livestock, the facility in the city of Tianjin will include a cloned animal center, a gene bank, and a science and education exhibition hall.
Here’s a video report on the new factory and related history of animal cloning.
Meanwhile, the Western world remains wary of cloning food animals. The preference in the West is to stave off future starvation by breeding more disease and climate resistant animals and by banking both genes and seeds to ensure enough biodiversity to further protect food stock.
You can see one example of these types efforts in this Newsweek post titled “Breakfast in Post-Apocalypse America: Inside Colorado's Fort Knox of Food.”