In an appropriate footnote to yesterday’s post about organically grown tomatoes being healthier, I have just seen an article in an April issue of The Voice of Russia about research, carried out by Russia’s National Association for Gene Security and the Institute of Ecological and Evolutional Problems, in which they fed GM soya to hamsters.

They divided the hamsters into four group and fed one group with their normal food, one with non-GM soya, one with limited amounts of GM soya and the fourth with an increased amount of GM soya. By the time the hamsters had reached the third generation, not only had those on the highest GM soya grown much more slowly and matured sexually much more slowly, but they failed entirely to produce any cubs at all.

To add insult to injury, these third generation, high-GM-eating hamsters had also grown hair in their mouths….

9th August. Just noticed that the BBC Countryfile magazine is running a poll on whether or not GM crop trials should be allowed to go ahead in the UK. If you wish to have your say you can do so here.