Experiment with Suspected GM Soy and Tenebrio Molitor: Day 13

What's been happening with the mealworms?! They're all fine. Interestingly, the non-organic (the one that I labelled "?GM") side has four worms already pupating, as you can see from the picture (bottom right corner, looking pale and contracted). The organic side looks very similar, but not a single worm has advanced to the pupal stage. Does that mean that the cheaper non-organic bulk soy is actually more nutritious, or is there something else in it that is accelerating the worms' growth?


After nearly two weeks, apparently no mealworm has died from eating non-organic bulk soy. Just because the soy lacked organic certification doesn't mean you can't live off it. This suggests something generally good about the human food supply, so I am not disappointed. It means I should be able to eat the natto that I cultured from non-organic soy without compromising my diet.

Tonight, I will enlist the aid of my son and lab assistant in counting the worms again, cleaning the containers and refreshing the food supply with a new trial: organic soy meal vs. suspected GM soy from China. The official claim is that there is no GM soy grown in China; having lived in Beijing for a while during a period of notorious food scams (the worst of which involved tainted infant formula), I would like to put that claim to a meaningful test. Let's see if mealworms can live off it, shall we?

Ciao!

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