The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced a
$3.2-million campaign to save “beleaguered” monarch
butterflies
Numbers of Monarch butterflies have decreased by 90 percent
since 1996
The announcement acknowledges agricultural practices have
played a role in devastating monarchs’ habitat, but does not
mention Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, which experts say was
instrumental to their demise
By Dr. Mercola
Earlier this month, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
announced a $3.2-million campaign to save “beleaguered” Monarch
butterflies.1
As recently as 1996, there were close to 1 billion monarchs across
the US. Today, their numbers have dwindled by 90 percent.
The crux of their campaign is restoring and enhancing monarch
habitat, as habitat loss due to agricultural practices has played a
role in their demise. More than 200,000 acres of habitat is slated
to be restored for monarchs while the program is also planning over
750 schoolyard habitats and pollinator gardens.
It’s a good start, but there is something glaringly absent from
the FWS announcement – Monsanto’s role in all of this.
Monsanto’s Glyphosate Is Killing Off Monarchs’ Favorite Plant
Milkweed is an easy target for
glyphosate, the chemical in the herbicide Roundup that’s used
prolifically on Monsanto’s Roundup Ready™ genetically engineered
crops.
This perennial plant used to be common across American prairies,
and it plays an integral role in monarchs’ survival. It is the
only plant on which the adult monarch will lay its eggs.
Once the larvae hatches, the caterpillar will eat the plant. In
fact, it is the only food that monarch caterpillars eat.
Without milkweed along its migratory path, the monarch cannot
reproduce – which means it cannot, ultimately, survive.
This is reason enough to take urgent action, but the loss of
monarchs isn’t only about butterflies. According to FWS:
“Spectacular as it is, protecting the monarch is not just
about saving one species. The monarch serves as an indicator of
the health of pollinators and the American landscape.
Monarch declines are symptomatic of environmental
problems that pose risks to our food supply, the spectacular
natural places that help define our national identity, and our
own health. Conserving and connecting habitat for monarchs will
benefit other plants, animals and important insect and avian
pollinators.”
‘Farming Per Se Is Not the Problem’
FWS acknowledges that agricultural practices have played a role
in devastating monarchs’ habitat. But it’s not just farming
that’s the problem – it’s the planting of GM crops, particularly
corn and soy, and the subsequent application of Roundup that is
killing off the butterflies.
According to a report, “Monarchs in Peril,” by the Center for
Food Safety (CFS), “farming per se is not the problem,” as monarchs
have coexisted with agriculture since the 1800s.2
Even as prairies and forests in the Midwest were converted to
cropland, one particularly hardy species of milkweed, common
milkweed, survived. Its deep, extensive root system allowed it to
survive tillage, mowing, harsh winters, and even the application of
most herbicides, which typically didn’t affect their roots. CFS
noted:
“Thus, throughout the 20th century, common milkweed
within and around corn and soybean fields has supported a large
population of monarch butterflies.
In fact, in the late 1990s roughly half of the monarchs
in Mexican winter roosts had developed on common milkweed plants
in the Corn Belt, making this far and away the most important
habitat for maintaining the monarch population as a whole.”
As of 2013, however, about 90 percent of soybeans and more than
80 percent of corn grown in the US are of the GM Roundup Ready
variety. Between 1995, the year before the first Roundup Ready crops
were introduced, and 2013, total use of glyphosate on corn and
soybeans increased 20-fold, according to the CFS report.
Meanwhile, as
usage of glyphosate has skyrocketed, milkweed has plummeted. In
1999, CFS noted that milkweed was found in half of corn and soybean
fields, but this declined to 8 percent 10 years later. In 2013, it
was estimated that just 1 percent of the common milkweed present in
1999 remained. Tragically, while milkweed is not harmed by many
herbicides… it is easily killed by glyphosate. CFS reported:
“Recently… a dramatic change in farming practices — the
widespread cultivation of genetically engineered,
glyphosate-resistant Roundup Ready corn and soybeans—has
triggered a precipitous decline of common milkweed, and thus of
monarchs.
Glyphosate, sold by Monsanto under the name of Roundup,
is one of the very few herbicides that is effective on milkweed.
Unlike many other weedkillers, once absorbed it is translocated
(moved internally) to root tissue, where it kills milkweed at
the root and so prevents regeneration.
Glyphosate is particularly lethal to milkweed when used
in conjunction with Roundup Ready crops. It is applied more
frequently, at higher rates, and later in the season — during
milkweed’s most vulnerable flowering stage of growth — than when
used with traditional crops.
The increasingly common practice of growing Roundup Ready
crops continuously on the same fields means that milkweed is
exposed to glyphosate every year, with no opportunity to
recover.”
Call for Monarchs to Be Added to the Endangered Species List
With 90 percent of monarchs vanishing since the 1990s, groups
including the Center for Biological Diversity are calling for the
butterfly to be placed on the endangered species list.
Meanwhile, rather than directing Monsanto to pay the costs of
restoring Monarch habitat… and calling for an end to the elimination
of milkweed from cropland, Dan Ashe, director of Fish and Wildlife
Service, said that everyone is responsible for killing off monarchs:3
“We’ve all been responsible. We are the consumers of
agricultural products. I eat corn. American farmers are not the
enemy. Can they be part of the solution? Yes.”
Monsanto surely breathed a sigh of relief upon finding no mention
of their herbicide in the FWS report and, not surprisingly,
applauded it by saying “farming and habitat for Monarchs can
co-exist.”4
Critics, however, believe the FWS is not going far enough to protect
this valuable species.
For instance, CFS advocates restricting the spraying of
glyphosate late in the growing season, when milkweed is flowering
and more likely to be killed.5
According to Larissa Walker, pollinator campaign director at CFS:6
“While funding for efforts to restore milkweed habitat
are essential to the monarch butterfly's survival, without
addressing the eradication of milkweed within agricultural
fields, monarch populations will not rebound to resilient,
healthy levels.
Research has shown that monarch butterflies lay up to
four times more eggs on milkweed within agricultural fields, and
unfortunately, this vital breeding habitat has been destroyed by
herbicides used in conjunction with genetically engineered
crops.”
Honeybees Are Also in Danger
Like Monarch butterflies,
honeybees have been declining in record numbers in recent
decades, due to what has been dubbed “colony collapse disorder.”
There is no price that can be put upon the work of bees, which
pollinate one-third of the food we eat.
Just about every fruit and vegetable you can imagine is dependent on
the pollinating services of bees. Apple orchards, for instance,
require one colony of bees per acre in order to be adequately
pollinated. Almond growers must have two hives per acre.
So far there have been enough bees to keep up with production…
but just barely. Those in the industry describe an increasingly dire
situation in which finding enough bees to pollinate crops is
"chaos." One recent study found that worker bees who begin foraging
prematurely perform very poorly, and this compounds the stresses on
the colony and accelerates failure of the hive.7
Glyphosate may also play a role in bee colony collapse disorder. As
stated by
GMO expert Dr. Don Huber, there are three established
characteristics of colony collapse disorder that suggest glyphosate
may be (at least partly) responsible:
The bees are mineral-deficient, especially in micronutrients
There’s plenty of food present but they’re not able to
utilize it or to digest it
Dead bees are devoid of the Lactobacillus and the
Bifidobacterium, which are components of their
digestive system
The bees also become disoriented, suggesting endocrine hormone
disruption. Neonicotinoid insecticides, which are endocrine hormone
disruptors, have been demonstrated to make a bee disoriented and
unable to find its way back to the hive – and have been implicated
in bee die-offs. Glyphosate is also a very strong endocrine hormone
disruptor. Dr. Huber also cited a study on glyphosate in drinking
water at levels that are commonly found in US water systems, showing
a 30 percent mortality in bees exposed to it.
No One’s Testing to See How Much Glyphosate Is on the Produce You
Eat
If pesticides, herbicides, and other agricultural chemicals are
decimating pollinators, have you stopped to think about what happens
when you eat them? Research has demonstrated that these agricultural
chemicals are neurotoxic, capable of damaging your nervous system.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 60
percent of herbicides, 90 percent of fungicides, and 30 percent of
insecticides are also carcinogenic.
All of these toxins are permitted on conventional farms, and any
number of them can end up on your plate when you purchase
conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. However, it’s difficult
to know exactly how many pesticides and herbicides may be on your
food and what the health consequences may be. The US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) insists
pesticide residues on food are no cause for concern.
According to the agency's latest report, more than half of all
foods tested last year had detectable levels of pesticide residues,
but most, they claim, are within the "safe" range. Yet, the USDA
does not test for glyphosate, which is the most commonly used
herbicide in the US (and world)! It’s worth noting that 73
percent of conventionally grown foods had at least one pesticide
residue, as did 23 percent of their organically grown counterparts.
A US Government Accountability Office report also called into
questioned pesticide residue reporting and testing, noting the
following glaring issues:8
The small percentage of produce tested (less than .01
percent of imported produce was tested in 2012)
The lack of disclosure about what is not tested (i.e.
glyphosate)
The calculation methodology itself
Protest at Monsanto’s Headquarters: Monsanto Is Making Us Sick
At the end of January, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA)
joined Moms Across America (MAA) and others at a protest outside
Monsanto’s corporate headquarters, the site of their annual
shareholder meeting. OCA’s campaign “Monsanto Makes Us Sick”
included speeches by medical doctors who summed up the scientific
evidence against
Roundup herbicide. At the shareholders meeting, MAA presented
Monsanto’s CEO Hugh Grant with more than 500 testimonials of people
describing how their health had been damaged by Roundup and its key
ingredient glyphosate.9
At last year’s shareholder meeting, 10 peaceful protestors were
arrested by police dressed in military fatigue uniforms. Rather than
simply being on hand in case the protestors got out of control
(which they did not), they actually engaged in
intimidation games! If you’d like to get voice your opinion
about Monsanto’s herbicides, or get involved with saving Monarchs
and other pollinators, there are specific action steps you take
below.
Action Step #1: Petition for Classifying the Monarch as
'Threatened'
A 2014 White House memorandum calling for a federal strategy to
promote the health of honeybees and other pollinators, by way of a
multiagency Pollinator Health Task Force, has been introduced.10
The petition also urges the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
USDA and President Obama to protect the Monarchs' breeding habitat
by halting the approval of Monsanto Roundup Ready™ and other
glyphosate-resistant and pesticide-promoting GE crops. As noted by
the Los Angeles Times:11
"Since federal glyphosate rules were last updated a
decade ago, its use has spiked tenfold to 182 million pounds a
year, largely due to the introduction and popularity of corn and
soybeans genetically modified to resist the herbicide... ‘The
tenfold increase in the amount of glyphosate being used
corresponds with huge losses of milkweed and the staggering
decline of the Monarch,’ said Sylvia Fallon, an NRDC senior
scientist. 'We are seeking new safeguards desperately needed to
allow enough milkweed to grow... The good news is that
butterflies are resilient and can rebound quickly... All they
need is milkweed on which to lay their eggs.'”
Action Step #2: Ask Retailers to Stop Selling Pesticide-Treated
Plants
If you live in the US, I would also encourage you to contact your
local Lowe’s store, either by phone or in person, and ask them to
stop selling
bee-killing pesticides and neonicotinoid-treated plants.
Neonicotinoid pesticides are a newer class of chemicals that are
applied to seeds and taken up through the plant’s vascular system as
it grows, where it’s expressed in the pollen and nectar that
pollinators consume. For contact information, see
Lowe’s Store Locator page.
Action Step #3: You Can Support Bee and Butterfly Populations from
Home
To avoid harming bees and other helpful pollinators that visit
your garden, swap out toxic pesticide and lawn chemicals for organic
weed and pest control alternatives. Even some organic formulations
can be harmful to beneficial insects, so be sure to vet your
products carefully. Better yet, get rid of your lawn altogether and
plant an edible
organic garden. Both flower and vegetable gardens provide good
honeybee habitats. It's also recommended to keep a small basin of
fresh water in your garden or backyard, as bees actually do get
thirsty.
In order to support the Monarch butterflies, consider planting a
locally appropriate species of milkweed in your garden, on your
farm, or wherever you manage habitat. You can use the
Milkweed Seed Finder to locate seeds in your area. Whatever you
choose to grow, please avoid purchasing
pesticide-treated plants.
Cut flower growers are among the heaviest users of toxic
agricultural chemicals, including pesticides, so if you must buy cut
flowers, make sure you select only organically grown and/or
fair-trade bouquets.
Ideally, you'll want to grow your own pollinator-friendly plants
from organic, untreated seed, but if you opt to purchase starter
plants, make sure to ask whether or not they've been pre-treated
with pesticides. Plant a pollinator-friendly garden by choosing a
variety of plants that will continue flowering from spring through
fall; check out the
Bee Smart Pollinator App for a database of nearly 1,000
pollinator-friendly plants. Be sure to choose plants native to your
region and stick with old-fashioned varieties, which have the best
blooms, fragrance and nectar/pollen for attracting and feeding
pollinators.
Keep in mind that you also help protect the welfare of all
pollinators every time you
shop organic and grass-fed, as you are actually “voting” for
less pesticides and herbicides with every organic and pastured food
and consumer product you buy. You can take bee preservation a step
further by trying your hand at amateur beekeeping. Maintaining a
hive in your garden requires only about an hour of your time each
week, benefits your local ecosystem—and you get to enjoy your own
homegrown honey!
Copyright 1997- 2015 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.