Potential Benefits of Plant and Animal Cloning New ways to mass produce medicines? The pharmaceutical industry may be one of the first industries to utilize cloning in its efforts to improve human health. The genes that code for the production of different hormones, such as human insulin, might be inserted, via transgenic technology, into the genome of another mammal which would then begin producing human insulin. In essence, this animal becomes a factory, or bioreactor , for insulin production. (In fact, anticoagulants are already being produced in this manner, and are being tested on humans!) By cloning this animal/insulin bioreactor, using nuclear transfer technology, an entire herd of insulin producing biofactories can then be created. Medical researchers are also looking to develop cloned life forms to mass produce antibiotics, anesthetics, anticoagulants, vaccines, and hormones. Enhanced medical and genetic testing and research? Cloning could also mass produce genetically identical subjects, and thus genetically identical transgenic subjects, for medical and genetic testing and research. eactor Improved food supplies? Animal scientists hope that cloning will allow them to increase the quantity and quality of various foods. The cloning of genetically superior plants and animals that are used for foods could increase the human food supply, and make it more nutritious as well. The idea, for example, would be to select those plants and animals with the most desirable genomes, or improve their genomes via biotechnology, and clone them over and again. This process is already done through traditional breeding programs by breeding together those individuals with the most desirable characteristics. But biotechnology in conjunction with cloning would be much more systematic, and quicker than traditional breeding practices currently used to improve plants and animals, which can take several generations. Cloning is also more efficient as it can produce an exact nuclear genetic duplicate. In contrast, by combining two separate genomes, breeding is quite inexact as it can create offspring with new unwanted, even deleterious, characteristics in addition to those considered desirable. Other improved plant and animal products? Cloned plants and animals could be used to improve the quantity and quality of many of the other materials necessary for human existence, including clothing (cotton, wool, leather, feathers, grasses), shelter (lumber, thatch), fuels (wood, dung), and the raw materials needed for various manufacturing and building industries (bamboo, wood, paper, wool, cotton). Increase the numbers of endangered species? Some scientists believe that cloning animals could help stop one of our most pressing environmental problems -- the permanent loss of many animals species from the planet. Animals that are experiencing dwindling numbers could be cloned to prevent their extinction. Taiwanese scientists claimed to have made five clones of an endangered pig to save this species (from Agence France Press , March 5, 1997)