Not Just Bees: Disappearence of Monarch Butterflies Linked To Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide
Not only is Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide (also known as glyphosate) causing cancer, birth defects, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and more, (read more about that here) it could also be shrinking the population of the North American monarch butterfly.
The World Wildlife fund announced that last year’s migration from Canada, to the United States and down to Mexico was the lowest it’s ever been since scientists began tracking them over twenty years ago. (1) In fact, a 43 percent drop has been measured compared to last year, that’s huge and very concerning. This year, the butterflies could only be found on 1.6 acres of forest near Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, in 1996 the insects could be found covering a span of 45 acres. Some say that illegal logging is responsible for the decline, as well as rising temperatures and climate change. Many also point to the evidence that links the increased use of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicides in the United States and Canada to the decline of the monarch butterfly. Even with all of the information available about how harmful Roundup is, the EPA raised the allowable concentrations of Monsanto’s Roundup on food crops, you can read more about that here. Here is a graph depicting the decline over the years. It’s not only Monarch Butterflies, but Bees as well. A lot of information has come out linking Monsanto insecticides to the death of millions upon millions of bees over the past few years. You can read more about that here. Karen Oberhauser of the University of Minnesota says that the use of Roundup has destroyed the monarch butterfly’s primary food source, which is a weed called milkweed that is found across North America. Oberhauser has been able to catalog a parallel decline in the butterfly population with the elimination of the weed. You can read the full article posted by RT news here. Monsanto has come under a lot of opposition within the past few years. As a result, many countries are completely banning GM products and the pesticides that come with them. Russia also recently announced that they are considering a complete ban on GMO food products, you can read more about that here. As mentioned and illustrated earlier, Monsanto’s agriculture-oriented chemicals are responsible for various cancers, autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and more. It’s completely mind boggling to think that the Environmental Protection Agency raised the permissible level that could be sprayed on crops, also mentioned earlier. Pesticides are not needed, we have the potential, ability and resources to grow completely non-GMO, organic, pesticide free food and feed the entire planet doing so. Roundup herbicide is absolutely unnecessary, and the continual justification of it by big bio-tech corporations and the Environmental Protection Agency is making many people scratch their heads. Why do we continue using these pesticides if they aren’t necessary? Why are we continually made to believe that they are necessary? This is one thing, out of many, that we must stop in order to protect our health as well as our environment, and the others that we share this planet with – such as bees and monarch butterflies. Sources: (1) http://worldwildlife.org/stories/monarch-population-hits-lowest-point-in-more-than-20-years http://rt.com/usa/monsanto-roundup-monarch-butterflies-483/ .
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