Study: Pigs seriously harmed by GM crops

A new study shows that pigs were harmed by the consumption of feed containing genetically modified crops. GM-fed females had on average a 25% heavier uterus than non-GM-fed females - a possible indicator of disease that requires further investigation. Also the level of severe inflammation in stomachs was markedly higher in pigs fed on the GM diet. Male pigs were more strongly affected. Lead researcher Dr Judy Carman, adjunct associate professor at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, said that their findings were noteworthy for several reasons:

Results were found in real on-farm conditions, not in a laboratory, but with the added benefit of strict scientific controls that are not normally present on farms.
Pigs were used, which end up in food supply
Pigs have a similar digestive system to people; therefore the need arises to investigate if people are also getting digestive problems from eating GM crops.
These adverse effects when we fed the animals a mixture of crops containing three GM genes and the GM proteins that these genes produce. Yet no food regulator requires a safety assessment for the possible toxic effects of mixtures. Regulators simply assume that they can't happen.
 

The new study lends scientific credibility to anecdotal evidence from farmers and veterinarians, who have for some years reported reproductive and digestive problems in pigs fed on a diet containing GM soy and corn. The research was conducted in the USA by collaborating investigators from two continents and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Organic Systems. The pigs were slaughtered at the usual slaughter age of over five months, after eating the diets for their entire commercial lifespan. The full paper is available here: http://gmojudycarman.org