The Huffington post recently ran a story about Howard Vlieger, one Iowa farmer who became skeptical of effects of GMOs on his animal.
The story is billed as a “farmer’s perspective” about GMOs (coincidentally enough the story ran on a website sponsored by Chipotle, who has been critical of the technology). The claims about adverse effects of biotech crops on animal performance is consistent with claims made by many anti-biotech advocates.
How does the anecdotes correspond with the scientific evidence on the subject? The answer is: it doesn’t hold up.
One study from the Animal Science Department at the University of Nebraska found:
Steer performance was not different between Bt corn root worm protected or RR hybrids and their parental controls following the 60 day grazing period. The animal performance demonstrates feeding value of corn residue does not differ between genetically enhanced corn hybrids and their non-genetically enhanced parent hybrid. Similar research at the University of Nebraska also showed no difference in steer performance due to the incorporation of the Bt trait for corn borer protection (2001 Nebraska Beef Report, pp 39-41). There was also no preference between Bt and nonBt hybrids. During the grazing period, 47.5% of the steers were observed grazing Bt residue, and 52.5% of the steers were observed grazing nonBt residue.
Read the full original article: Do cows dislike GMO corn?
