• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Genetically engineered corn causes low birth weight in mice

Texashiker

Texashiker

Lifer
Mice given a mixture of GE corn, and non-GE corn gave birth to smaller litters, and the baby mice weighed less then normal.

http://www.greenpeace.org/india/en/news/no-need-for-condoms-ge-corn/

When the GE corn was removed from the diet, birth weights and litter size returned to normal.

Austrian scientists fed mice over a course of 20 weeks a mixture of 33 percent Monsanto GE corn (NK 603 x MON 810) and non-GE corn.

These mice gave birth to less babies and lighter babies in their third and fourth litters. Mice fed on non-GE corn had babies as normal.
Click to expand...

With so many hybrid types of food, why do we need genetically engineered products? Are the food products as safe as the companies claim they are?
 
That's just fear mongering! No need for testing, we should just continue to move forward with this stuff as part of our food supply. </sarcasm>

We don't know if this affects humans the same way, but would anyone be surprised if it turns out there are side effects to genetically engineered food that we haven't begun to uncover yet?
 
Who needs testing for products to prove they're safe. Free market FTW eat now sue after something kills you... oh wait..
 
I notice no links to this research. Hard to form an opinion.

The writer doesn't know the difference between less and fewer and how to use them?
 
You people are so ignorant. No one has ever talked about using GM corn for the food supply. It is primarily used as feed for cattle. Also, fields that are planted with GM corn for this use are required to be a minimum distance from an non GM corn plots. Do you really think that all the corn you see from the highways when driving through the Midwest is grown for human consumption? Its not since you cannot grow human food supply corn that close to a roadway. Food supply corn is still grown under very stringent guidelines.

That website and study are so ridiculously biased I cannot believe you posted that with a straight face.

You do realize that GM corn is no different than corn which could occur naturally. These companies do nothing to the corn that couldn't occur naturally through breeding and a lot of generations. They simply insert the genes rather than waiting forever to either breed them in or go out and find a wild type with the gene of interest.

You anti GM folk are ignorant as fuck. (For the purposes of full disclosure, I have worked at two GM companies and am currently employed at one.)
 
Last edited:
And guess what?

this corn is in EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING>>>> check labels. Unless you can afford to blow $500 a week on groceries shopping at somewhere like Whole Foods, it can be hard to avoid eating it.
 
xBiffx said:
You people are so ignorant. No one has ever talked about using GM corn for the food supply
Click to expand...

There are reports that some 75% of the worlds corn is GM.

genengcrops.gif


http://www.monsanto.com/products/Pages/corn-seeds.aspx

Or how about a farmers account of his pigs becoming sterile after being fed GMO corn?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eilDbdLAyFs
 
Last edited:
xBiffx said:
You do realize that GM corn is no different than corn which could occur naturally. These companies do nothing to the corn that couldn't occur naturally through breeding and a lot of generations. They simply insert the genes rather than waiting forever to either breed them in or go out and find a wild type with the gene of interest.
Click to expand...

What you are talking about is hybrid corn, not GE/GM corn.

GE/GM corn uses non-corn genes. Something that would be very, very rare in nature.
 
Texashiker said:
What you are talking about is hybrid corn, not GE/GM corn.
Click to expand...

Hybrid corn, in many cases is GM corn. Hybrid corn is made by saving the seeds from a parent line and combining (breeding) that offspring with another parent line. In each case, it could be wild type or GM. This alone shows your ignorance.

Texashiker said:
GE/GM corn uses non-corn genes. Something that would be very, very rare in nature.
Click to expand...

GM corn does not use non-corn genes. This also shows your ignorance. Nothing grows if you start inserting genes not specific to a species.

Something very rare in nature is still natural. As I stated there is nothing unnatural about the genes that are used in corn. Drought tolerance, insect tolerance, herbicide tolerance, etc. These are all things that some, albeit very few, wild type strains exhibit. Its a simple matter of isolating that gene and then figuring out how to insert it into the GM strain. Perhaps the process is unnatural but it produces something that could easily be existing in nature. We just don't have 10's if not 100's of years to go find it.
 
airdata said:
There are reports that some 75% of the worlds corn is GM.

Or how about a farmers account of his pigs becoming sterile after being fed GMO corn?
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with that graph. As I said in my last post a majority of corn that is grown in used in feed or for seed corn for future generations of planting. A very small amount is grown for human food supply purposes.

Thanks for backing up my previous statement with graphs. This changes nothing else of what I previously stated though.

So you have a story of pigs becoming sterile from one farmer. Must be the corn. Since that same corn isn't fed to millions of other pigs it still must be the corn. It couldn't possibly be something to do with that farm specifically or some other combination of things. If this were true, pigs everywhere would be sterile. If you actually read what I said in my last post, specifically the part about GM corn having natural characteristics you would know how ridiculously stupid the idea of GM corn sterilizing livestock really is. How exactly does GM corn cause livestock to go sterile? What, does the fictitious alien gene get digested and then come apart, start a colony, and start attacking the reproductive system? Does it somehow start manufacturing chemicals in the gut of the pig that starts attacking the reproductive system? Sounds like a Sci-Fi movie to me...and a really bad one at that.
 
Last edited:
Gonad the Barbarian said:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/plymouth/pubs/btcorn99.html
Click to expand...

Ah yes, the BT gene. Knew it wouldn't take long for this one to pop up. Thankfully, this is exactly the subject of the work I do so I have no idea what I am talking about, keep that in mind.

Bacillus thuringiensis is a naturally occurring bacterium that as it turns out appears to be nature's insecticide. Basically, insects that ingest this bacterium die very quickly due to the effect of the bacterium on their gut. Its pretty nasty but essentially, the proteins contained in the bacterium break down the lining of the insect gut. Shitty way to go for sure.

Now, you might be right that this is not a naturally occurring gene for corn in that it hasn't been discovered in a wild type corn, yet. However, this gene occurs in many other types of plant life, mostly trees. Actually, that is how it was discovered that it could be inserted into the corn gene to begin with. Scientists noticed that when certain trees were infested with different kinds of insects they would produce this protein toxin at the sight of the infestation. Analysis was done on this plant material and whala!, the BT gene was discovered in plants. It stands to reason that there is a corn out there that contains this gene as the introduction of the gene to different strains of corn has not been harmful to the production of the strains with this gene.

Thanks for bringing that up by the way. I especially like this subject because it shows how scientists observed a natural process and adapted it for the protection of crops against harmful pests.
 
Last edited:
Texashiker said:
Mice given a mixture of GE corn, and non-GE corn gave birth to smaller litters, and the baby mice weighed less then normal.

http://www.greenpeace.org/india/en/news/no-need-for-condoms-ge-corn/

When the GE corn was removed from the diet, birth weights and litter size returned to normal.



With so many hybrid types of food, why do we need genetically engineered products? Are the food products as safe as the companies claim they are?
Click to expand...

Anyone has link to the actual paper? Bullshit source
Edit:
As expected GP hyped FUD bullshit:
http://pubresreg.org/index.php?id=68&option=com_content&task=view

Finally, EFSA also published, as part of their minutes from the 46th plenary meeting on December 4, 2008
the following statement, which is given here in extenso:

Adopted part of the minutes of the 46 plenary meeting of the Scientific Panel on Genetically Modified
Organisms held on 3-4 December 2008 GMO Panel deliberations on the Austrian report &#8220;Biological effects of
transgenic maize NK603 x MON 810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice&#8221; as adopted at the plenary
meeting of 3-4 December 2008.

&#8220;On 11 November 2008 the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth released a research report on studies in mice,
which were conducted to assess the impact of genetically modified (GM) maize NK603 x MON 810 on reproduction (Biological
effects of transgenic maize NK603 x MON 810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice, Dr. Alberta Velimirov, Dr. Claudia
Binter, Univ. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Zentek).
The report includes three studies, a life-time study, a multigeneration study (MGS), and a reproductive assessment by continuous
breeding study (RACB). According to the authors the life-time study showed no statistically significant differences in survival
between mice fed with kernels of maize NK603 x MON 810 and the controls. They also reported that, in the MGS study, no
significant differences in reproductive traits were found between mice fed with kernels of maize NK603 x MON 810 and the
controls. In the RACB study, the authors used a modified protocol of the original RACB study developed at the U.S. National
Toxicology Program (NTP) for the testing of chemicals. Male and female mice were housed as breeding pairs for approximately
20 weeks and allowed to produce litters continuously throughout the cohabitation period. The authors identified differences in
reproductive parameters between mice fed with the GM maize and the controls. They reported that there were statistically
rd
th
th
significantly fewer pups born in the GM group in the 3 and 4 delivery and fewer pups weaned in the 4 litter compared with

th

7

the control group. The GMO Panel considered this report and came to the following conclusions. Regarding the RACB study, the
rd
th
summary Table 59 contains calculation errors and inconsistencies in the treatment of the data regarding the 3 and 4 litters. In
addition, it seems that the authors have calculated the number of pups at birth per pair and not per delivering pair, which is
standard practice. Also, there appears to be methodological deficiencies in the statistical analysis that seriously compromise the
interpretation of the data. For the reasons stated above, individual data are required for a proper assessment. In addition, more
rd
th
detailed information regarding the breeding scheme is needed. In particular, it should be clarified whether in the 3 and 4
pairing the same or different pairs failed to reproduce.
Information regarding the normal variation of the parameters examined in this study for the mouse strain used (historical control
data) is required before any conclusion may be drawn on possible alterations in reproductive performance. In addition, further
information on the estrous cycle and histopathological parameters including spermatogenesis, follicle and oocyte counts is
essential for assessing the claims of reduced fertility.
The GMO Panel also notes that information on the genetic identity and characteristics of the tested materials is not sufficient.
On the basis of the data presented the GMO Panel is of the opinion that no conclusions can be drawn from the report.&#8221;

Published at http://www.efsa.europa.eu/EFSA/efsa_locale-1178620753812_1211902199319.htm. The complete
th
minutes will be adopted at the 47 plenary meeting (28-29 January 2009) and will be published shortly afterwards.
th
EFSA/GMO/457 &#8211; part of the Minutes 46 Plenary Meeting of the GMO Panel
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I also saw a documentary once where they went to mexico and texted the wild corn only to find that it had cross bred w\ genetically modified corn to which Monsanto has patents.

So basically if they find that the wind has blown copyrighted monsanto corn into a farmers corn field, they can sue the farmers.

The world according to Monsanto is a good documentary. Not sure if it's that one or another that goes over the revolving doors of monsanto execs going to the FDA to approve questionable products form Monsanto and then going back to work for Monsanto.

None of this stuff is tested. Or at least it wasn't tested when fed to the public. At this point we probably have ample testing on the effects of GMO and extra hormones in our food supply. Girls hitting puberty @ 12, increase in cancer, and who knows what else.
 
airdata said:
I also saw a documentary once where they went to mexico and texted the wild corn only to find that it had cross bred w\ genetically modified corn to which Monsanto has patents.
Click to expand...

1. Corn have cell phones?

2. The story was on Soy Beans. Not that I agree with that genetic patent BS. Forbidding genetic engineering because some other bonehead made it legal to patent something that could be acquired w/o any deliberate means (passive purveyance) is just not right.
 
Texashiker said:
Hybrid corn is the result of cross-pollination. Then saving the seeds from cross-palliated plants.
Click to expand...

What did I say? Fucking read. Yes, hybrid is the result of breeding but many times what you are breeding is GM corn. Saying corn is hybrid says nothing about whether it is GM or wild type. You are such a butthead McFly!
 
I'm very skeptical of the study, given the source.

It's a simple enough study to repeat independently. $5 says that if someone repeats this study and accounts for all variables (same number of calories in diet, etc.), that they'll see no significant difference.
 
xBiffx said:
What did I say? Fucking read. Yes, hybrid is the result of breeding but many times what you are breeding is GM corn. Saying corn is hybrid says nothing about whether it is GM or wild type. You are such a butthead McFly!
Click to expand...
Sucks when people are intentionally obtuse.
 
wow, Biff actually knows what he's talking about with this subject for once 🙂

Somethings you are ignorant as fuck about though Biff, but then again so am I when it comes to some subjects. We all don't know everything.

The problem is when people think they know more than they really do and won't back down in spite of overwhelming self pwnage they keep doing to themselves by showing their ignorance over and over on a subject they have fucking clue about. I'm talking in general and not point that comment at you there Biff. Although there has been a few pots that make me shake my head at your answers, but these posts have been excellent by you Biff.

I'm not a fan of the corporate manhandling and outright bullshit companies like Monsanto do. Some of their research is genius, but their business making decisions make me want to punch them in the face.
 
xBiffx said:
You people are so ignorant. No one has ever talked about using GM corn for the food supply. It is primarily used as feed for cattle.
Click to expand...

Oh really.

Let's educate ourselves on GM corn:

A Comparison of the Effects of Three GM Corn Varieties on Mammalian Health
http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm

Bugs may be resistant to genetically modified corn
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4580793...s-may-be-resistant-genetically-modified-corn/

Genetically modified corn being sold unlabelled, opponents say
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life...+sold+unlabelled+opponents/5454358/story.html

Banned throughout Europe, Monsanto’s GM corn found growing in Ireland
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/20...e-monsantos-gm-corn-found-growing-in-ireland/

http://biotech.matcmadison.edu/resources/activities/modFoods/student.htm

A different problem arose for the Terra Prima organic corn chip company in Hudson, Wisconsin, in 1995. Despite strict practices by its organic corn growers, it was discovered that some of Terra Prima’s Apache Tortilla chips showed traces of Bt corn. Genetic testing revealed that pollen from a crop of Novartis Bt corn planted more than a quarter-mile away had contaminated an organic corn field of one of Terra Prima’s suppliers. Because of the contamination by pollen drift, Terra Prima recalled and destroyed 90,000 bags of chips, a significant monetary loss to the small company (Rama nujan 2000).
Click to expand...

Are GM Crops Killing Bees?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,473166,00.html

etc. etc. etc.
 
xBiffx said:
Ah yes, the BT gene. Knew it wouldn't take long for this one to pop up. Thankfully, this is exactly the subject of the work I do so I have no idea what I am talking about, keep that in mind.

Bacillus thuringiensis is a naturally occurring bacterium that as it turns out appears to be nature's insecticide. Basically, insects that ingest this bacterium die very quickly due to the effect of the bacterium on their gut. Its pretty nasty but essentially, the proteins contained in the bacterium break down the lining of the insect gut. Shitty way to go for sure.

Now, you might be right that this is not a naturally occurring gene for corn in that it hasn't been discovered in a wild type corn, yet. However, this gene occurs in many other types of plant life, mostly trees. Actually, that is how it was discovered that it could be inserted into the corn gene to begin with. Scientists noticed that when certain trees were infested with different kinds of insects they would produce this protein toxin at the sight of the infestation. Analysis was done on this plant material and whala!, the BT gene was discovered in plants. It stands to reason that there is a corn out there that contains this gene as the introduction of the gene to different strains of corn has not been harmful to the production of the strains with this gene.

Thanks for bringing that up by the way. I especially like this subject because it shows how scientists observed a natural process and adapted it for the protection of crops against harmful pests.
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, *if* the gene showed up in a wild corn strain, would it be a provable statement that it had occurred naturally, as opposed to cross-breeding with a GM strain?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top