It has become something of a family ritual: school successes, new jobs and other milestones are toasted in a splendid local tavern above plates of steak and chips. These outings feel especially indulgent given that we are trying to consume less red meat for both health and environmental reasons.

But while guilt-tripped westerners are passing up the fillet steaks — 12 per cent of Britons claim to be vegan or vegetarian, rising to 20 per cent of 16-24 year olds — other countries are happily tucking in. The richer the country gets, the more meat its citizens crave. And now China is turning to biotechnology to keep aspirational appetites sated.

BoyaLife, a Chinese biotechnology company, is teaming up with a Korean research company, Sooam Biotech, to clone 1m cattle a year to feed public demand for high-quality beef. The joint venture — no pun intended — has been announced by China’s official Xinhua news agency and promises to make the country a major player in agricultural biotechnology.