Can eating GM foods affect your fertility???
Some food for thought, so to speak. In a recent article, research on the effects of GM food on the reproductive health of mice was presented.
Genetically modified corn has been linked to a threat to fertility in an official study that could deliver a hammer blow to controversial ‘Frankenstein Food’.
A long-term feeding trial commissioned by the Austrian government found mice fed on GM corn or maize had fewer offspring and lower birth rates.
GM advocates have argued that the fact the US population has been eaten some types of GM food for more than a decade is proof of its safety.
However, these reassurances have been turned on their head by the study commissioned by the Austrian Ministries for Agriculture and Health, which was presented yesterday at a scientific seminar in Vienna.
A press release from the Austrian Agency for Health and Nutrition, said the group of mice given a diet of genetically engineered corn saw a significant change in fertility.
One of the studies was a so-called reproductive assessment by continuous breeding (RACB) trial, in which the same parent generation gave birth to several litters of baby mice.
The parents were fed either with a diet containing 33per cent of GM maize, a hybrid of Monsanto’s MON 810 and another variety, and a normal feed mix..
The team found changes that were ’statistically significant’ in the third and fourth litters produced by the mice given a GM diet. There were fewer offspring, while the young mice were smaller.
It said: ‘The number of litters and offspring decreased in the genetically engineered (GE)-fed group faster than in the control. In the GE-fed group more females remained without litters than in the control group.’
More research will have to be done to further confirm this work. I know that GM food has been controversial for a long time now and the discontent is not going away. I can’t help but be reminded that when we get involved in changing things for the ‘better’, I am usually confused who benefits from the ‘better’ – I don’t think it is the general public.
November 15th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Can eating GM foods affect your fertility???…
Genetically modified corn has been linked to a threat to fertility in an official study that could deliver a hammer blow to controversial ‘Frankenstein Food’. A long-term feeding trial commissioned by the [...]…