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Saturday, October 18th, 2014

The U.S Approves a Powerful New Pesticide Deadly to Monarch Butterflies

Author:     Todd Woody
Source:     takepart
Publication Date:     October 16, 2014
 Link: The U.S Approves a Powerful New Pesticide Deadly to Monarch Butterflies
Stephan:   It is a measure of the control chemical agriculture corporations exercise over the regulatory agencies that are supposed to oversee and police their behavior that a poison like the one reported in this story can get approved. It ought to be clear to anyone with commonsense that the poison model will just keep escalating causing more and more damage. That it obviously isn't clear to the EPA is very revealing.

monarchspesticideIs the monarch butterfly the new polar bear?

The iconic insect, whose numbers have plummeted from 1 billion to 35 million over the past two decades, is emerging as the latest symbol of environmental catastrophe: In this case, the impact of industrial agriculture, genetically modified crops, and skyrocketing pesticide use on wildlife.

The latest fight over the future of the monarch broke out on Wednesday, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved a powerful—and highly toxic—new weed killer called Enlist Duo. Made by Dow AgroSciences and designed to be sprayed on genetically modified corn and soybean crops, Enlist Duo combines glyphosate and 2,4-D in a formula that’s supposed to kill weeds that have developed a resistance to each of those individual pesticides.

One wild plant that has not developed defenses against growing pesticide use is milkweed, which is essential to the monarch’s survival.

The rapid growth in industrial agriculture has wiped out milkweed through much of the Midwest, as the development of corn and soybeans resistant to glyphosate has given rise to the widespread use of the herbicide to control weeds.

In […]

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2 Comments

  1. Lori on Saturday, October 18, 2014 at 6:44 am

    If people would just take a closer look, at the majesty, and the story, of the Monarch and the Honeybee! They would find beauty, mystery, and a link within our Eco-system, directly related to human survival.
    I hope others take the moment to sign this petition. It is a matter of – consideration.

  2. Rev. Dean Rose on Saturday, October 18, 2014 at 9:18 am

    Our human race has begun the sixth mass extinction; therefor we do not deserve to exist on this planet anymore.