For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page and our Millions Against Monsanto page.

Farmers across the nation have reported ill effects in their animals when fed GMO corn and soy feed, but with a simple change, often costing less, non-GMO feed is causing better animal health and less disease.

You can conduct scientific studies on GMO all day long, but when you witness your animals getting sick right before your eyes, there is nothing more telling than that first-hand experience. Danish pig farmer Ib Pedersen was one farmer who saw immediate devastation to his pig herd after feeding them genetically modified soy. He’s no inexperienced farmer, either. He supplies one of the biggest companies in his country, Danish Crown, with pork – more than 13,000 pigs a year.

He noticed pig deformities, spontaneous abortions

, and intestinal health issues before switching to a non-GMO variety of feed. Just a short time later, he experienced, “less abortions, more piglets born in each litter, and breeding animals living longer.” In short, his pig farm became healthy and prosperous, and he wasn’t spending as much on medicine to treat unhealthy pigs.

Another farmer, Troy Knoblock, who also raises hogs, switched from GMO feed to non-GMO feed a few years ago – not thinking there would really be a difference. He even says, ‘We laughed about it,’ when determining to go to a cheaper variety, which happened to be non-genetically modified. He had been keeping extensive records of his operation, and found that the money he was spending on drugs to treat ill hogs was cut in half shortly after going to non-GMO feed. He also saw fertility rates go up in his hogs – conception rates increased to almost 90% in many cases, and the size of the hog litters increased as well.