Livestock loss due to GMO corn

[chippie]

Have you all heard about this?

The Food Nation Radio Network conducted an exclusive interview this week with Jerry Rosman, an Iowa pig and cattle rancher who lost his entire operation due to GMO corn that he says made his livestock sterile. Today, he drives a truck to make ends meet, but he agreed to tell us his story.

http://www.newstalkflorida.com/ranc...-corn-jerry-rosman-elizabeth-dougherty-audio/

:???:

 

[Lucky_P]

BS. total and unadulterated. IMO, you should take most of these sorts of reports, in the popular media, with a pound of salt.
They paint 'GMO' with a broad brush, like they're all the same - but they're not. Some have the Bt gene inserted to confer resistance to attack by corn borers, earworms, other insect pests, some have the Roundup-resistance gene, some have inserted genes to confer greater drought resistance, etc.

If you try to Google up info, about all you'll get are organic food/left-wing kook sites - that either don't really give any specific info, no real documentation - just anecdotal reports - and all parrot one another. When you look at one FoodNation/OrganicFood/ActivistPost site after another, and they're all essentially a repeat of the identical 'talking points', I have a hard time giving 'em much credence.

As best I can tell from searching the scientific literature, the anti-GMO folks are keying in on the Cry1Ab protein, an insecticidal protein produced by Bacillus thuringiensis, which is coded for by the gene inserted into Bt corn/soybeans. Cry1Ab is degraded in the mammalian stomach - it's only effective against specific insect larvae - and, the 'organic' folks use Bt out the wazoo, anyway - it's one of their 'approved' insecticide. Additionally, the methods by which some researchers have used in purportedly identifying Cry1Ab in human blood/fetuses/placenta has been debunked as not valid.

There was a French paper which was released - and trumpeted widely by the anti-GMO crowd - claiming that Roundup-Ready crops and glyphosate were causing cancer in laboratory rats/mice. It was eventually even debunked by the EU, due to flaws in experiment design, and refusal by the authors to release pertinent information, etc.
http://iphone.france24.com/en/20121128- ... ize-cancer
Note: if you allow normal laboratory rats to live out their entire lifespan, a significant number of them develop tumors of one kind or another, regardless of whether they're fed RR corn or crops sprayed with glyphosate. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1444814

 

[CottageFarm]

BS. total and unadulterated. IMO, you should take most of these sorts of reports, in the popular media, with a pound of salt.
They paint 'GMO' with a broad brush, like they're all the same - but they're not. Some have the Bt gene inserted to confer resistance to attack by corn borers, earworms, other insect pests, some have the Roundup-resistance gene, some have inserted genes to confer greater drought resistance, etc.

If you try to Google up info, about all you'll get are organic food/left-wing kook sites - that either don't really give any specific info, no real documentation - just anecdotal reports - and all parrot one another. When you look at one FoodNation/OrganicFood/ActivistPost site after another, and they're all essentially a repeat of the identical 'talking points', I have a hard time giving 'em much credence.

As best I can tell from searching the scientific literature, the anti-GMO folks are keying in on the Cry1Ab protein, an insecticidal protein produced by Bacillus thuringiensis, which is coded for by the gene inserted into Bt corn/soybeans. Cry1Ab is degraded in the mammalian stomach - it's only effective against specific insect larvae - and, the 'organic' folks use Bt out the wazoo, anyway - it's one of their 'approved' insecticide. Additionally, the methods by which some researchers have used in purportedly identifying Cry1Ab in human blood/fetuses/placenta has been debunked as not valid.

There was a French paper which was released - and trumpeted widely by the anti-GMO crowd - claiming that Roundup-Ready crops and glyphosate were causing cancer in laboratory rats/mice. It was eventually even debunked by the EU, due to flaws in experiment design, and refusal by the authors to release pertinent information, etc.
http://iphone.france24.com/en/20121128- ... ize-cancer
Note: if you allow normal laboratory rats to live out their entire lifespan, a significant number of them develop tumors of one kind or another, regardless of whether they're fed RR corn or crops sprayed with glyphosate. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1444814

My thoughts too, Lucky.
Not only "approved", but highly recommended as safe and harmless for people and soil. (and most insect pests for that matter)

And, yup, the French "study" that was so widely touted, has been completely rejected by everyone except the people who JUST KNOW GMO's are harmful. Their (the study conductors) methodology and documentation was so horrible not only did the EU reject it, so did most of the member states, including France as I recall.

 

[chippie]

That is what I thought too. I know people who believe this stuff. They are not very enjoyable to be around.

 

[Nite Hawk]

whether or not GMO corn can sterilize cattle or not, who knows? However there is an interesting article from vermont university concerning GMOs,( not a conspiracy theory source), asking some questions about GMOs.
http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsh ... genic.html
Pesonally do I trust the makers of DDT, PCBs, agent orange, roundup, etc( yes it is mostly Monsanto and Dow chemical who produced that stuff )to produce healthy foodstuff??
Not really.....
Nite Hawk

 

[dun]

whether or not GMO corn can sterilize cattle or not, who knows? However there is an interesting article from vermont university concerning GMOs,( not a conspiracy theory source), asking some questions about GMOs.
http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsh ... genic.html
Pesonally do I trust the makers of DDT, PCBs, agent orange, roundup, etc( yes it is mostly Monsanto and Dow chemical who produced that stuff )to produce healthy foodstuff??
Not really.....
Nite Hawk

Surly you could find something more current then 12 years ago if they caused the disaster that this guy anticipates!

 

[pdfangus]

on the other hand there is an upside.....
in our area we have quite a few startup farms that are managing to make a living on a relatively small acreage by producing for and appealing to the all natural crowd. most of them have one spouse who works off farm still, but they are surviving and growing.
this is allowing folks to participate in agriculture as a profession rather than a sideline as I have done most of my life....Now I have worked in agriculture all my life and made a living providing products and services....and I was able to enter into a partnership with a neighbor that allowed us to have a locally well respected herd of Angus cattle....But that herd was a sideline and was done on nights and weekends and I could never have raised the capital to afford the land needed to do this on my own at a scale to support myself and family.....certainly not now when land around us is still valued at 20K per acre in this recession.

 

[Coco Donatella]

GMO corn isn't any different than non GMO corn. The organic goon squad just wants people to think there is.

 

[pdfangus]

GMO corn isn't any different than non GMO corn. The organic goon squad just wants people to think there is.

I am not disputing that.....

but perception is fifty percent of the battle and the upscale obama voters want all natural food..... and those who can adapt to change are filling this need.....

in our area we have a huge interest in what we here term homesteaders....young upscale couples acquiring ten or more acres with a half million dollar house and doing what they can to be self sufficient....goats, sheep, rabbits, large gardens, greenhouse, orchard, vinyard, one or two cows for milk or meat and chickens....good lord there are chickens everywhere....

these people are concerned about what they are eating....

then there is the consumer supported agriculture....you buy a share and get a box of stuff weekly of what is in season and available from the member farms.

if you are stuck in ten years ago it is time to peek over the edge of your groundhog hole and see what is going on....

the recent election is just a sign of the changes going on in this country....go to a city mall and walk around for a half hour.....

I am not disparaging the past and I don't like what I see down the road....but I cannot change it....and to rail against it is useless.

we lost control when we let the federal government be in charge of education so many years ago....and relaxed all standards on everything.....to the lowest common denominator.

local debate in one county here right now about changing the grading scale in the schools...from a six point scale to a ten point scale....to be like the surrounding areas.....in other words a failing grade would move from a 74 to a 59.

 

[Nite Hawk]

There are lots of web sites out there de-crying GMOs, however they some of them might be considered "conspircy" type web sites, so that was why I put a university web page which is backed up by a bit of research.
There theoretically may be some problems with introducing different plant species into mainline plants.
Take for instance say someone has allergies to say tomatoes, and the tomatoe gene is implanted into say corn or some other plant, and the unsuspecting allergic person eats the genetically modified product that has the tomato inserted into the corn.
There is the possibility of anaphalctic shock. Not a nice thought.
That is hard to prove or dis-prove, but you have to admit that sickness with no known reason is at an all time high, and very often doctors shake their heads and walk away, as they don't know why cases of asthma and allergies are going through the roof, and every other kind of disease.
I have a close family member who cannot eat modern hybrid wheat, she gets quite sick. She can eat the old fashioned wheat no problem. Her body knows the difference, even when she doesn't. She never knew this for a long time, and was sick for ages.
Also, consider the reported problems of reduced productivity for GMO plants, that a high number of them produce less than some of the old standbys. The research is out there.
Or consider that I think it was last year in S.Africa they had a 80% corn crop failure, because of relying on GMO corn seed, instead of relying on various different seed types from various companies.
The seed was no good, and a big enough volume the country itself had an 80 % crop failure. not good if that is your staple product.
There are stories out there that I have not had the time to find out if they are true or not that in the developement of GMOs some of the plants were injected with parts of the E.coli bacteriam.
If true- Thank you very much, I have seen enough sickness from e.coli to last a long long time, and would rather not deliberately eat it.
If you want to eat the stuff.. go for it,
I would rather not, but realize it is in almost everything we buy anymore, so it is difficult to avoid.
As for what caused the cattle to be sterile, there are a number of things that could have caused the problem, and I suspect nothing was ever proved either way...

 

[TexasBred]

By nature many people seems to always look for someone or something to blame for about anything that happens to them. Over the years I've seen total failures on seeds from corn to okra and never knew why. The cause could have been a hundred different things. Every seed does not always germinate. Most seed will tell you what the germ tested on that batch.

Perception is everything?? Right....I'm reminded of the old boy that was bagging racehorse oats and and the manager came in and said "Joe Blow" wants 500 bags of seed oats".....The old boy goes to the back, comes back with 500 empty bags labeled "Seed oats" and continues bagging. :cowboy:

 

[glacierridge]

My brother's neighbor is a dairy farmer, he's not any part of the organic goon squad, but his dairy cattle would not eat the corn silage from round up ready corn as well as conventional corn, they just don't want it.
I don't know anything about it leading to infertility, all I know is he isn't really biased, he just knows it affected his production because they didn't "dig in" like they did on non GMO.
He was grateful that they still ate the ground feed from it alright though.

 

[TexasBred]

My brother's neighbor is a dairy farmer, he's not any part of the organic goon squad, but his dairy cattle would not eat the corn silage from round up ready corn as well as conventional corn, they just don't want it.
I don't know anything about it leading to infertility, all I know is he isn't really biased, he just knows it affected his production because they didn't "dig in" like they did on non GMO.
He was grateful that they still ate the ground feed from it alright though.

An isolated instance of "who knows why"......down here the dairies are not having any problems with the GMO corn silage so we know it's not universal.

 

[glacierridge]

An isolated instance of "who knows why"......down here the dairies are not having any problems with the GMO corn silage so we know it's not universal.

That's good at least. Yeah, "who knows why" sounds correct... sometimes I've seen things that don't have a good explanation any way you slice it.

 

[snake67]

GMO - vs - Organic

Hmmm .......

Grow organic within a few miles of non-organic or GMO - pollen travels - people tend to forget that.

Bees travel miles carrying pollen

Seeds become intermingled and plants become intermingled

Roundup ready crops have been found in the middle of and growing with non- RoundUp ready - simply pollen travel and seed development.

Millions of cows exist on GMO corn and grains that have been dried down with RoundUp or a similar product.

Millions of people eat organic crops that have been dried down with RoundUp (go figure!) because the active ingredient is supposed to be natural (I think!) and is therefore approved by the organic crowd. Sheesh!

Sometimes I wonder who is doing who is doing who is doing who ...... and so on and so on.

Merry Christmas to all

Bez

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Frita fat heifer says..."Taste like corn to me!" :lol2:

 

[Banjo]

Where I live is cattle country, rolling hills, you can't find five acres that don't have some slope to it. The grain farmers around here will pay up to 100 dollars more per acre for corn ground than a cattleman will or can for rented pasture. They run all over the county and surrounding counties renting every little patch of dirt they can get a tractor or combine over without it turning over. How can they keep from polluting the underground water sources, with Roundup, nitrates, etc. All the water, creeks, streams eventually go into one of the largest man-made lakes on the country where everyone gets their water piped into their homes. Cancer in this area is rampid.....
Whether GMO is good or not, I personally don't want it, and the perception is becoming the same by more and more people. More and more countries are closing their doors to GMO grains. If GMO labeling on food ever becomes a law then the only thing that will sustain it will be the ethanol industry. But I don't think they can use that much corn. IMO if the average consumer had a choice between GMO and non-GMO they would choose the latter.
It took thirty years or longer to create the Dust Bowl . What are we in the process of creating now.....

 

[TexasBred]

Where I live is cattle country, rolling hills, you can't find five acres that don't have some slope to it. The grain farmers around here will pay up to 100 dollars more per acre for corn ground than a cattleman will or can for rented pasture. They run all over the county and surrounding counties renting every little patch of dirt they can get a tractor or combine over without it turning over. How can they keep from polluting the underground water sources, with Roundup, nitrates, etc. All the water, creeks, streams eventually go into one of the largest man-made lakes on the country where everyone gets their water piped into their homes. Cancer in this area is rampid.....
Whether GMO is good or not, I personally don't want it, and the perception is becoming the same by more and more people. More and more countries are closing their doors to GMO grains. If GMO labeling on food ever becomes a law then the only thing that will sustain it will be the ethanol industry. But I don't think they can use that much corn. IMO if the average consumer had a choice between GMO and non-GMO they would choose the latter.
It took thirty years or longer to create the Dust Bowl . What are we in the process of creating now.....

Perhaps enough corn and other foods to feed the world??? You've been eating GMO corn for years but if you want non GMO I'm sure someone will sell it to you. Would you know the difference??

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Where I live is cattle country, rolling hills, you can't find five acres that don't have some slope to it. The grain farmers around here will pay up to 100 dollars more per acre for corn ground than a cattleman will or can for rented pasture. They run all over the county and surrounding counties renting every little patch of dirt they can get a tractor or combine over without it turning over. How can they keep from polluting the underground water sources, with Roundup, nitrates, etc. All the water, creeks, streams eventually go into one of the largest man-made lakes on the country where everyone gets their water piped into their homes. Cancer in this area is rampid.....
Whether GMO is good or not, I personally don't want it, and the perception is becoming the same by more and more people. More and more countries are closing their doors to GMO grains. If GMO labeling on food ever becomes a law then the only thing that will sustain it will be the ethanol industry. But I don't think they can use that much corn. IMO if the average consumer had a choice between GMO and non-GMO they would choose the latter.
It took thirty years or longer to create the Dust Bowl . What are we in the process of creating now.....

So your saying more people are getting cancer because of GMO? Then why aren't farmers and chemical applicators dropping like flies? They get 10x more exposure to all the different chemicals then anyone else, and yet they are still living into their 60's and 70's. Ever wonder about that?

 

[Banjo]

Perhaps enough corn and other foods to feed the world??? You've been eating GMO corn for years but if you want non GMO I'm sure someone will sell it to you. Would you know the difference??

We need Genetically altered food to feed the world? I think not. The multi-national companies don't care about feeding the world, their main concern is the price of their stock and keeping their stockholders happy.

Then there is the subject of being able to patent a seed which in my opinion is immoral. I'm sure there are more than a few grain farmers who has seen the wrath of breaking that patent, if even accidentally. But I'm sure they don't catch everyone, but just enough to make examples in front of everyone else.

As far as labeling goes, everyone should have the right know whats in their food and how it is grown.
I have a nephew who has a serious aversion to MSG. What if it wasn't required to be labeled? And to answer your question......no, you can't tell the difference by looking. Just because people don't drop dead with the first bite, doesn't mean its good for you. If you want to ruin your health just eat fast food everyday. It may take a little while, but sooner or later it will.