Clothing factory in China set to be the largest of its kind

The company behind China's newly proposed
cattle cloning factory, set to be the largest of its
kind in the world, says it expects to one day
expand its work to include cloning humans as
well.
China is not the only country working on
producing cloned beef to enhance food supplies
for the world's growing population. While
European Union leaders have expressed concerns
about the practice and moved to ban the sale of
cloned meat products, the US FDA in
2008 declared that "meat and milk from cow, pig,
and goat clones and the offspring of any animal
clones are as safe as food we eat every day." The
possibility of creating human clones, however, is
highly contested throughout the world.
Nevertheless, Xu Xiaochun, CEO of the Boyalife
Group, says he is optimistic that the process will
be permitted one day and that his company is
poised to be a leader in what he expects will be a
burgeoning industry.
"The technology is already there. If this is
allowed, I don't think there are other
companies better than Boyalife that make
better technology," Mr. Xu told RT.
Xu acknowledged that the company has to be
"self-restrained" about pursuing human cloning
because public perception still is not yet fully
accepting of the concept. He hopes that a factory
like the one that will be opening in Tianjin will
help shift that view.
"We want the public to see that cloning is
really not that crazy, that scientists aren’t
weird, dressed in lab coats, hiding behind a
sealed door doing weird experiments," he
said.
He hopes that the expected success of Boyalife's
new cattle factory at helping to solve China's
food crisis will change the way people view
cloning.
The new factory, which will be based in the
northern port city of Tianjin, will also include a
museum and gene storage facilities holding the
genetic records of endangered species for future
replication.
Chinese demand for beef has grown substantially
over the past decade, and farmers are struggling
to raise enough cattle to keep up with
demand. Rabobank, a bank focused on the food
and agriculture industry, projects that China’s
beef consumption will rise by an additional 2.2
million tons by 2025, with local sources
accounting for the bulk of that product.
The Tianjin factory will initially produce 100,000
cattle embryos a year, but is projected to produce
1 million a year by 2020.
Boyalife reports that China has been cloning
sheep, cattle, and pigs since 2000. Boyalife is
currently working with Sooam Biotech Research
Foundation, located in Seoul, South Korea, and
the Chinese Academy of Sciences, located in
Beijing, to develop the technology that will make
cloning primates possible.