Originally posted by RocKukko

"Most Offspring Died When Mother Rats Ate Genetically Engineered Soy"

The Russian scientist planned a simple experiment to see if eating genetically modified (GM) soy might influence offspring. What she got, however, was an astounding result that may threaten a multi-billion dollar industry. Irina Ermakova, a leading scientist at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), added GM soy flour (5-7 grams) to the diet of female rats. Other females were fed non-GM soy or no soy at all. The experimental diet began two weeks before the rats conceived and continued through pregnancy and nursing.

But the real shock came when the rats started dying. Within three weeks, 25 of the 45 (55.6%) rats from the GM soy group died compared to only 3 of 33 (9%) from the non-GM soy group and 3 of 44 (6.8%) from the non-soy controls.

The soy she was testing was Monsanto’s Roundup Ready variety. Its DNA has bacterial genes added that allow the soy plant to survive applications of Monsanto’s “Roundup” brand herbicide. About 85% of the soy gown in the US is Roundup Ready.

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We started to play god and now it's paytime. US in main grower of transgenic crops. In 2006, 89% of the planted area of soybeans, 83 percent of cotton, and 61 percent maize was genetically modified varieties. Some wild animals feed themselfs on these crops, the gm organisms gets in foodchain and so the effect area widens...

just my 2 cents

Hiyah Loam,

I am a fan of some of your other posts Thanks for posting your thread it gives us all a lot to think and type about.

I propose that instead of being undue alarmists on this topic, let's look at the actual evidence.

That said....I did a simple google search and found this:

What species are going extinct?

The best known groups of organisms are birds and mammals. Since the year 1600, a total of 83 mammals species (2.1%) and 113 birds (1.3%) are known to have become extinct.

Since 1500, 784 extinctions have been documented by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Over 99% of species that ever lived are now extinct, but extinction occurs at an uneven rate. Based on the fossil record, the background rate of extinctions on Earth is about two to five taxonomic families of marine invertebrates and vertebrates every million years.

They are known ominously as the Big Five — the five greatest mass extinctions over the past 500 million years, each of which is thought to have annihilated anywhere from 50 to 95 percent of all species on the planet.

Half the world's mammals are declining in population and more than a third probably face extinction, said an update Monday of the "Red List," the most respected inventory of biodiversity.

A comprehensive survey of mammals included in the annual report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which covers more than 44,000 animal and plant species, shows that a quarter of the planet's 5,487 known mammals are clearly at risk of disappearing forever.

But the actual situation may be even grimmer because researchers have been unable to classify the threat level for another 836 mammals due to lack of data.

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