I am hearing that Roundup soybeans have a negative affect on whitetailed deer

Expert response from GMOAnswers Admin_1

Tuesday, 19/04/2016 17:19

From this site, you may be aware that hundreds of studies have been conducted with laboratory animals, livestock, and wildlife with the weight of the evidence that animal health is not affected by GMO crops, including roundup ready soybeans. Even though we have not conducted studies with deer, studies have been conducted with other animals such as swine and chickens. Those animals are non-ruminants, but studies have also used different ruminant species, such as cattle, sheep, goats and water buffalo. White-tailed deer and these other ruminants are all in the sub-order ruminantia. Therefore, studies with domesticated ruminants are highly applicable to deer since they share similar digestive metabolism and physiology. The studies done with domesticated ruminants are typically conducted with very high amounts of GM feeds including Roundup ready soybean meal. Deer typically eat a more varied diet that changes with seasons of the year (i.e., grasses, acorns, woody plants, ornamental plants in my yard).

The deer population in my state of Missouri is a valuable resource and has seen significant growth in both rural and in urban areas. This resource is managed carefully because when they are over populated, auto collisions, crop damage and suburban damage increase. Due to their population growth, the Missouri Department of Conservation has changed hunting regulations in an attempt to limit their increase. These regulations are probably the single most important factor affecting the deer population. Sometimes other factors do have effects such as the drought in 2012 but these tend to be transient effects.