Plans to clone cattle to meet China’s growing demand for beef threaten to win the country down a dangerous road to pollution,food insecurity and ill health A biotech consortium in China has announced that it intends to open a facility near Beijing with the aim of cloning up to a million cows a year to meet the countrys growing demand for beef. The factory won’t stop at cows. It also plans to clone racehorses, pets and even sniffer dogs. But the vast majority of animals it produces will be calves for meat production.
In Beijing I read this news with incredulity and dismay. In 2009, or I directed the first documentary approximately China’s rising consumption of meat and the growing industrialisation of its food sector,including livestock production. In the film, What’s for Dinner?, or I explored a nexus of problems related to intensive animal agriculture: environmental pollution,food security, public health (including the spend of antibiotics and hormones in feed), and climate change and animal welfare.
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Source: theguardian.com