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Monsanto vs. the monarchs: The fight to save the world’s most stunning butterfly migration
http://www.salon.com/2014/06/01/monsanto_vs_the_monarchs_the_fight_to_save_the_worlds_most_stunning_butterfly_migration/North America is on the verge of losing one of its most spectacular phenomena, Chip Taylor tells Salon
Monarch butterflies are pretty impressive insects: Aside from that whole metamorphosis thing, theyre famous for their annual winter migration, an up to 3,000-mile journey across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The breathtaking spectacle that results when they alight, by the millions, in central Mexico is the sort that inspires legends, not to mention sustains the countrys tourist industry.
But if the monarchs can be said to have a fatal flaw, its that theyre are entirely dependent upon milkweed. And milkweed, once common in the American Midwest, has been all but eliminated from the cropland where it once thrived, the loss a side effect of our growing, and increasingly efficient, industrial agriculture system. While the monarch itself isnt yet endangered, its stunning migration could soon become a thing of the past.
There are actually a lot of places where we can place the blame for this. The push, by Congress, to use corn-based ethanol as biofuel didnt help matters, and climate change certainly isnt doing the butterflies any favors, either. The question now is what were going to do about it. Enter Chip Taylor, insect ecologist and founder of Monarch Watch. The group, which has been operating since 1992 out of the University of Kansas, is hard at work on an enticingly simple solution to all this: if the loss of milkweed is killing the butterflies, then maybe, just maybe, what we need to do is plant more milkweed.
Theres a little more to it, of course. But, as Taylor told Salon, its a promising start. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Berkeley Food Institute agree: this May, they honored him with a Growing Green award for his work as a pollinator protector. Taylor spoke with Salon about his 22-year campaign to protect the monarchs, and made a heck of a case for why theyre worth the effort. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
I was hoping first you could give us an update on the status of the monarch butterflies. I know they had a really bad winter has any good news arrived with springtime?
Weve had three years in a row in which the conditions for reproduction have not been good, and so the population has been going down in part due to the fact we just havent had good breeding conditions in each of the previous summers. But the main issue with the monarchs is the long-term trend. Its been the loss of habitat. And if we hadnt lost so much habitat we wouldnt be worrying so much about the population, because wed still have a pretty good base.
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Monsanto vs. the monarchs: The fight to save the world’s most stunning butterfly migration (Original Post)
hue
Jun 2014
OP
The Stranger
(11,297 posts)1. I am the Lorax.
I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.