Monday, March 24, 2014

Monarchs Endangered by Pesticide

The massive rise in the growing of genetically modified crops has led to an increase in the use of pesticides on the resistant plants.  Once again Nature is suffering from industrial agriculture's indiscriminate use.  Glyphosate is killing off milkweed along with the Monarch butterfly.  Native milkweed is the only plant used by the monarch to lay its eggs. Twenty years ago, 1 billion monarchs migrated to Mexico for the winter.  This year, only 33.5 million made the arduous 3,000 journey south and their number will continue to fall if restrictions are not adopted on the use of pesticides like Monsanto's "Roundup".  The NRDC says this is the ninth year in a row that the population of monarchs wintering in Mexico has fallen below its long term average.  This year's migration hit an all time low.  Join US Person and NRDC to ask the EPA to regulate the use of glyphosate to prevent extermination of the beautiful monarch butterfly.