Amidst all the concern going around that cows’ milk is bad for you, Chinese scientists have found a way to fix the problem: By genetically engineering cows to produce human breast milk. Is soy milk just not in favour yet?
Researchers at the Agricultural University in Beijing managed to produce milk with the same healthful properties as mothers’ milk. The milk itself was taken from a herd of 300 transgenic cows bred after inserting the human milk-making gene into bovine embryos. Safety tests are still being administered, but taste testers have described the product as “sweeter and stronger” than the regular old cow stuff and the scientists hope to see it on the market in three years.
It’s easy to imagine there being some kind of backlash to this, considering that “Cloned Cows Making Human Breast Milk!” sounds pretty science fiction-y. However, Professor Li Ning, director of the project, has already weighed in against the critics:
“There are 1.5 billion people in the world who don’t get enough to eat,” he said. “It’s our duty to develop science and technology, not to hold it back. We need to feed people first, before we consider ideals and convictions.”