GMO and Livestock

One of the hottest topics in terms of food safety is related to genetically modified foods eaten by both humans and livestock that are fed to humans. Is it safe? The prestigious  Journal of Animal Science, invited Alison Van Eenennaam, cooperative Extension specialist in animal biotechnology in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California, Davis, to conduct a thorough review of the scientific literature and evaluate the effects of GE feed ingredients on the animals consuming those feeds. “The data don’t show that there is any concerns related to the feeding of genetically modified feeds to livestock and we also looked at field data sets from the literally billions of animals that eat genetically engineered feed every year and these field data sets didn’t reveal unfavorable or perturbed trends in livestock health and productivity. I just feel this information is not getting out there. There is a lot of media coverage of these little one of studies as if that is the only study that has ever been done and the hundreds of carefully controlled experiments that don’t show sensational results get very little attention from the media and it is pretty frustrating as a scientist to see all of these studies ignored while the very sensational and often poorly designed studies get all the media attention. The data are pretty convincing that there is no problems with animals who eat genetically engineered feed.”

Kind of reminiscent of all of the play that animal activists get in the media as it relates to dairy production and agricultural livestock production.