monarchAnother Monsanto CasualtyFriday 9 March 2012

Note by Politics of Health Staff:

Technology, understood as the replacement of the natural ecological order with a humanly engineered one, is the central dream of Western Civilization. It is the vision that inspires us, the project that organizes our energies, and the god that gives us hope. Like our political goal of multi-spectrum dominance, it is a dream of conquering and controlling. This dream has led to the defacement of the earth's beauty and to the poisoning of our environment. We do not know how much damage the delicate and complex fabric of life can tolerate before it totally unravels. The unraveling will very likely mean the end of the human species. Certainly it will mean the end of a life the is free and beautiful. The dream has become a nightmare.


Another model of technology is open to us -- one based on accommodation, symbiosis, and mutuality. This model would respect the integrity of other life forms -- other cultures, other creatures, and other ecological networks. It would seek the enhancement of our relationship with the rest of creation, not our dominion over it. But we do not yet seem ready to give serious consideration to this model.  


We know that the ecological sphere is unraveling. We have seen it in the deformed amphibians that now so sparsely inhabit our lakes, in the decay of the coral reefs, in the list of endangered species, and in the loss of the rain forests. Not long ago we began hearing about the demise of the bees.
Monsanto is both a way of thinking, and a way of crushing all living systems that stand it its way. It is the embodiment of the full-spectrum dominance ideology in the ecological sphere. It is a disaster in the making.

And now it's the butterflies.

How many canaries must we see die before we understand that it's not healthy in this mine shaft that we have dug for ourselves.  When will it be too late?

The Article by Mike Barrett:

(Source of article -- Truth Out)

Monsanto’s Roundup, containing the active ingredient glyphosate, has been tied to more health and environmental problems than you could imagine. Similar to how pesticides have been contributing to the bee decline, Monsanto’s Roundup has been tied to the decrease in the population of monarch butterflies by killing the very plants that the butterflies rely on for habitat and food. What’s been shown to be an even greater threat to the population, though, is Monsanto’s Roundup Ready corn and soybeans.

Roundup Ready Crops and Glyphosate Leading to Downfall of Insect Populations

A 2011 study published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity found that increasing acreage of genetically modified Roundup Ready corn and soybeans is heavily contributing to the decline in monarch butterfly populations within North America. Milkweed, a plant butterflies rely on for habitat and food, is being destroyed by the heavy use of glyphosate-based pesticides and Roundup Ready crops. Over the past 17 years, the monarch butterfly population in central Mexico has declined, reaching an all-time low in 2009-2010.

“This milkweed has disappeared from at least 100 million acres of these row crops,” said Dr. Taylor, an insect ecologist at the University of Kansas and director of the research and conservation program Monarch Watch. “Your milkweed is virtually gone…this [glyphosate use on RR crops] is the one main factor that has happened…you look at parts of the Midwest where there is a tremendous use of these crops and you see monarch populations dropping. It’s hard to deny the conclusion.”

According to the Department of Agriculture, in 2011 94 percent of soybeans and 72 percent of corn grown in the United States were herbicide-tolerant. Due to this increase, the amount of Roundup used on crops in 2007 was 5 times higher than in 1997, only one year after Roundup Ready crops were available.

Another study published int he journal Crop Protection and conducted by Robert G Hartzler, an agronomist at Iowa State, found that milkweed on farms in Iowa declined 90 percent from 1999 to 2009. Additionally, his study found milkweed only on 8 percent of corn and soybean fields surveyed in 2009, which is 51 percent lower than in 1999.

Although the butterfly population may be suffering, humans are taking heat from Monsanto’s creations as well. Past research has shown that Monsanto’s Roundup ready crops are leading to mental illness and obesity, primarily by destroying the amount of good bacteria found in the gut. The corporation’s Roundup, containing glyphosate, has also been shown to cause infertility and birth defects.

Glyphosate is so present today that it has been found to be polluting the world’s drinking water through the widespread contamination of aquifers, wells, and springs. What may be most shocking is that very high concentrations of glyphosate have been found in 100 percent of urine samples tested in a recent study.