Page 23 - Fall2013

stop eating GMOs, they get better.” She says, “I A feedlot operator with five thousand head of cattle also switched
tell my patients to avoid genetically modified to non-GMO corn and reported, “We’ve had a lot less pneumonia and
foods because in my experience, with those foods health issues since that time.” Like the pig farmer, the behavior changed
there is more allergies and asthma,” as well as noticeably. His “cattle have been a lot calmer.” Many farmers who were
digestive issues such as gas, bloating, irritable struggling with high rates of infertility and miscarriage say they turned
bowel, colitis and leaky gut. “And what emanates the situation around after switching to non-GMO feed.
from that,” she says, “is everything. Lots of ar- Renowned veterinarian and author Michael W. Fox, whose syndicated
thritis problems, autoimmune diseases, anxiety newspaper column has twenty-five to thirty million readers, says that
. . . neurological problems; anything that comes when GMOs were introduced, cats and dogs started suffering from much
from an impaired immune system response.” higher rates of allergies, itching and gastrointestinal problems. He has a
file drawer full of letters from happy pet owners confirming that his advice
LIVESTOCK HEALTH IMPROVES to switch the pets to non-GMO and organic feed cleared up the problem.
People who switch to non-GMO diets often
do so by buying organic foods—which are not REPEATING SYMPTOMS: FROM LAB RATS TO CONSUMERS
allowed to use GMOs. This raises a critical What is striking about all these reports is the similarity of experi-
point in the analysis. Were the health recoveries ences. Many of the same categories of disorders identified in animal feed-
stemming from eliminating GMOs or from the ing studies by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, such
reduction in chemicals and increased nutrition as gastrointestinal, immune, and reproductive problems, also clear up in
found in organics? Similarly, since most GMOs humans and livestock when they switch to a non-GMO diet. Moreover,
in our diet are found in processed foods, some these same problems are on the rise in the U.S. population since GMOs
people reduce GMOs by cooking from scratch. were introduced in 1996.
Thus they simultaneously eliminate numerous
additives that also may contribute to disorders. HOW GM FOODS CAUSE
It is difficult, therefore, to isolate the influence HEALTH PROBLEMS
of GMOs in the presence of these other potential There are many ways that GM foods might produce or exacerbate
co-factors. these health problems. We examine five categories below:
Fortunately, the experience of numerous First, the process of genetic engineering creates unpredicted altera-
veterinarians and farmers around the world
gives us insight. When they take livestock off
GMO soy or corn and substitute the non-GMO
equivalent, they don’t have these confounding
co-factors. The animals are not eating organic,
there’s no change in nutrients or additives, and
the results are breathtaking.
When a Danish pig farmer switched to non-
GMO soy in April 2011 for his four hundred
fifty sows and their offspring, within two days
the animals’ serious diarrhea problems virtually
disappeared. During the following year, death
from ulcers and other digestive problems, which
had claimed thirty-six pigs over the previous
two years, vanished. Conception rate was up,
litter size was up, diseases were down, and birth
defects were eliminated.
An Iowa farmer saw immediate changes
in his three-thousand-pig nursery after switch-
ing to non-GMO corn last December. Not only
was there a dramatic drop in rate of disease and
medicine bills, he says, “Our pigs are happier
and more playful.”
Wise Traditions FALL 2013 FALL 2013 Wise Traditions 21

123816_text.indd 21 10/2/13 2:05 PM