Bt Corn Linked to Hog Breeding Problems

[Guest guest]

gee, not sure if this is goods news er bad...kinda a mixed bag ain't it..

 

Bt Corn Linked to Hog Breeding Problems

Submitted by Jim Riddle

Rt. 3 Box 162C

Winona, MN 55987

 

May 20, 2002

 

In its April 29, 2002, edition, the Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman contained an

alarming story on sow breeding problems related to the feeding of

genetically engineered Bt corn.

 

According to the article, Shelby County, Iowa, farmer Jerry Rosman was

alarmed when farrowing rates in his sow herd plummeted nearly 80 percent.

Rosman, who has nearly 30 years of farrowing experience, checked and

double-checked all of the usual suspect causes. He tested for diseases,

verified his artificial insemination methods were being properly

implemented, and poured over his nutritional program. But he found nothing

out of the ordinary.

 

Eventually, Rosman became aware of four other producers within a 15-mile

radius of his farm whose herds had nearly identical pseudopregnancies. The

herds had different management styles, different breeding methods and

different swine genetics.

 

A common denominator, Rosman says, is that all of the operations fed their

herds the same Bt corn hybrids.

 

Laboratory tests revealed their corn contained high levels of Fusarium mold.

Rosman says researchers typed the Fusarium down to four strains, and two of

them (Fusarium subglutinans and Fusarium monlliforme) were consistent in all

of the producers' samples.

 

One of the producers subsequently switched back to regular non-Bt corn, and

pseudopregnancy is no longer a problem within that herd.

 

Rosman believes the problem manifested itself on his farm because he planted

100 percent of the same brand of genetically engineered Bt seed corn and fed

100 percent of that corn to his livestock.

 

According to the article, Rosman isn't sure whether or not he'll be planting

any corn on his land this year. An agronomist has told him that a regular

rotation of corn and soybeans might not get rid of whatever gene has

contaminated his corn ground.

 

In a follow up article on May 13, 2002, the Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman

reported that shortly after the story detailing Rosman's situation appeared,

he was flooded with phone calls. " It hadn't even hit the mailboxes and the

phone started ringing, " Rosman says.

 

By late last week he had received calls from 12 other producers from various

parts of the state detailing situations very much like his own. The calls

primarily came from smaller producers who, like Rosman, feed their own corn

and noticed a sharp decline in farrowing rates recently.

 

The Rosman article sparked the interest of Norm Smith, who farms east of

Winterset, Iowa. Smith says he started experiencing breeding problems within

a few weeks of feeding the new corn hybrids he planted for the first time

last spring.

 

" I started feeding Bt corn in late September, and within 30 days I wasn't

getting anything bred, " Smith said, adding that his brother encountered

similar problems.

 

The Spokesman articles illustrate the fact that genetically engineered crops

have been rushed to market without proper testing. There have been no

mandatory tests on the long term effects of these crops on livestock or

human health. For example, the EPA, which regulates Bt corn, requires no

tests to determine how the crop impacts the reproductive systems of the

animals that eat it.

 

Genetically engineered materials, such as products manufactured from Bt

corn, are now commonly found in conventional foods. Due to a political

decision made in 1992 by the Bush/Quayle administration, genetically

engineered foods are not required to be segregated or labeled. Anyone who

eats foods containing conventional corn, soy, canola, and/or cottonseed

products is an unwitting guinea pig in a vast, uncharted ecological

experiment.