This website doesn’t usually second the shrill cries of environmentalists in The New York Times … but when it comes to the plight of the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) we’re going to make an exception.
The Monarch is one link in a food chain that’s being decimated due to the federal government’s spectacularly failed ethanol experiment.
A recent report by the Associated Press revealed the extent to which Washington D.C.’s ethanol mandates and subsidies – which have been sapping fuel efficiency, harming automobile engines and raising food prices – have also been a disaster for the environment they were supposed to be helped.
Missed that report? It’s a must read …
Anyway, NYT contributor Jim Robbins has a separate report in which he blames the ethanol industry (in part, anyway) for the “precipitous loss of native vegetation across the United States.”
“As the price of corn has soared in recent years, driven by federal subsidies for biofuels, farmers have expanded their fields,” Robbins writes. “That has meant plowing every scrap of earth that can grow a corn plant, including millions of acres of land once reserved in a federal program for conservation purposes.”
Robbins says this land rape has resulted in Iowa losing between 60-90 percent of its milkweed – a vital source of nectar for numerous insect species. As a result, the seasonal migration of Monarch butterflies to Mexico – which once averaged 350 million per year – dropped to a record-low of 60 million in 2012.
This year? According to Robbins “fewer than three million” have shown up South of the border.
Wow …
Obviously the “seasonal migration of Monarch butterflies to Mexico” isn’t our primary concern here. We’re much more concerned with the many adverse impacts ethanol subsidization has had on the American consumer. But this is bigger than dollars and cents. There is very real environmental damage being done by this government mandate – and it’s about much more than one particular species, it’s about entire ecosystems disappearing.
That’s a shame …
21 comments
The article is misleading to claim “only 3 million monarchs have showed up” in Mexico this year because the overwintering population in Mexico is not formally censused until December and January. Also, the article fails to inform readers that
although the milkweed growing within corn and soybean fields was eliminated back in 2006-2007. enough milkweed remains in the roadside ditches bordering the GMO crop fields to produce large numbers of monarchs that form large evening cluster sites like these I filmed in southern Minnesota in 2010 and 2011:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJCnU7PB9to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4e3S2sm13g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpEyRuh4lwg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItQlXEqxO24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCayVVKhlWM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jhKBj3rRt0
Well writ, Paul. Not only is it misleading.. it’s bad grammar. ..should read, “have shown up.”
Awesome analysis, ASSHOLE. I look forward to Mothras Return, the documentary. The primary focus of the movie would be how Franken-Corn increases the size of the monarch allowing it to safely migrate from country to country due to its increased strength produced by the DU bullet proof exoskeleton. This of course produces a new ORGANIC RENEWABLE bullet proof material prized by the GAWD DAMNED GUBMINT CUNT OBUTTHEAD. In depth analysis like this is truly appreciated. Clearly FitsNews doesn’t know it’s asshole from a hole in the ground. #ObamaFailsAgain
Bees are as important(if not more so) to the food chain than butterflies,but LINO/RINO’s like Fits fail to grasp the concept of ‘Real Conservatism’,as Richard Nixon did when he created,the EPA.’New Conservatives’ are very liberal when it comes to serving themselves-right now,without giving thought to generations who’ll follow,even when it includes their own children.
‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bdMSCdw20
Most lepidopterists (butterfly enthusiasts, like me) and impartial scientists recognize that midwest farmers’ widespread use of Monsanto’s non-selective herbicide Round-Up http://www.monsanto.com/products/pages/agricultural-herbicides.aspx
and
Monsanto’s patented, genetically-modified, Round-Up – resistant agricultural seeds
http://www.monsanto.com/products/Pages/monsanto-agricultural-seeds.aspx
are the major cause of the die-off of the Monarch’s only larval food plant — “butterfly weed” (asclepias spp.).
This is a recent phenomenon.
Asclepias grows not just among corn but also wheat, soybeans, sorghum, alfalfa, canola, etc. — crops grown from seeds that Monsanto sells.
But I agree with your opposition to the federal government ethanol policy, which was passed by . . . you guessed it . . . our Congressmen and U.S. Senators, and not by Presidential Executive Order.
It’s unlikely to change because it was and is championed by the farming lobby, including the farming lobby in Iowa, where Republican presidential caucuses are held every four years.
And of course by Monsanto, whose stock outperforms Monarch butterflies, who don’t vote.
http://www.monsanto.com/investors/Pages/stock-performance.aspx
— Jock Stender, Charleston
TBG notes that, in his youth, cow pastures were full of milkweeds. You don’t see many cow pastures around anymore either.
So.. are we saying that milkweed grows best where there’s bull droppings? You are now fined 20 credits for violation of the straight-line rule. Too many.
There must be alot of Dick Weed round these parts
If that excites you, here’s an entire article on dino doo-doo.
http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/131128/srep03348/full/srep03348.html
*Johnnie Cochran voice*
“If the coprolite…
Does not excite…”
“..You must respite!” – (Oh, fooey! only an eye-rhyme.. dang!)
….who actually COUNTS butterflies?
TBG (counting): “2,638,912…2,638,913…2,638,914…2,638,915…”
Some random person:
“Is today the 28th, 29th or the 30th?”
TBG: *irritated at the interruption…continues counting*
“31…32…33…34…35…”
Slartibartfast and TontoBubbaGoldstein,
You both raise good questions, which I have answered here, twice, but my posts are being deleted.
I’ve emailed Will asking why they are being deleted (see below) and have not heard back from him.
If you want my very thorough answer to your questions, I can email it to you.
Contact me at jock.stender@gmail.com.
Hint: Many hundreds of volunteers count the Monarchs during September and October, and the University of Kansas at Lawrence compiles all the data.
— Jock Stender, Charleston
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email sent to Will Folks, 7:56 PM, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013
QUOTE:
Subject: Website technical problem ??
Will,
TWICE I’ve posted lengthy posts (answers) to the “Fly Fly Butterfly” story (https://www.fitsnews.com/2013/11/29/fly fly-butterfly/) responding to this post:
~~~~~
TontoBubbaGoldstein
11 hours ago
….who actually COUNTS butterflies?
TBG (counting): “2,638,912…2,638,913…2,638,914…2,638,915…”
Some random person:
“Is today the 28th, 29th or the 30th?”
TBG: *irritated at the interruption…continues counting*
“31…32…33…34…35…”
~~~~~
That’s pretty funny but I’m actually a butterfly enthusiast and know the real answer, which took me about an hour to compose.
About 6 PM I posted the reply below and saw it there, but now it’s gone, just like the one I posted last night there is gone. What’s happening? Are you taking these down or does the website remove them if they’ve got too many URLs?
Jock
UNQUOTE.
Not mocking you at all. If anything, I believe that what you do is a wonderful combination of reality and whimsy. I’m glad that people take an interest in nature. My hobbies are journalism and archaeometeorology. Talk about reality and whimsy!
Jock,
I saw your post about counting butterflies and then *poof* it was gone.
One thing we can all do, is plant butterfly friendly plants in our yards. The bright orange milkweed (Butterfly milkweed?) is quite showy AND a perennial.
Amen, and it’s important to plant species of Asclepias that are “native” to one’s region. Here’s what I included in my “disappeared post” about asclepias (“milkweed”) seeds:
QUOTE:
Find NATIVE asclepias seeds (A.incarnata, A. perennis, A. syriaca, A. tuberosa, A. variega) at https://www.wildflower.org/expert/show.php?id=7308.
(Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at University of Texas at Austin)
Asclepias, a woody perennial, is very easy to grow from seed, and re-seeds easily. Its flowers’ nectar attract many butterfly species and is the only plant on whose leaves the female Monarch will lay eggs.
UNQUOTE
The anti-GMO stuff is BS.Making Monsanto ‘the evil one’ destroys your credibility.I bet you’ve marched in ‘Occupy’ protests,too.Without the judicial use of pesticides,America would have no soil left to till…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvNopv9Pa8
What is the “right” population size for Monarchs? The huge numbers were probably a result of agricultural practices, also.
…and don’t forget dastardly GLOBAL WARMING’S CLIMATE CHANGE’S probable role in this:
A) Warmer temperatures mean the butterflys no longer have to overwinter in Mexico.
or, if so inclined…
B) An unseasonable early cold snap froze them before they could get to Mexico.
It is well known that Monarch butterflies are the sworn enemies of the 99% Butterflies. They 99%’ers (also known as the “Vonage Scroungers”) may have been waiting just over the Mexican border and assassinated a goodly number.
Saw some swallowtails and skippers sporting tiny “Occupy Yucatan.” tee shirts just the other day.
I gotta stop reading your stuff.. I’ve ruined five shirts from spraying beer out my nose, laughing so hard!