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Tuesday, June 30th, 2015
(Beyond Pesticides, June 30, 2015) As the Monarch butterfly suffers serious decline, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering  the role of  herbicides in killing the iconic species’ food source, milkweed, and developing an action plan that may fall short. The agency identified possible action that it may take to slow the Monarchs’ decline in a document released last week entitled Risk Management Approach to Identifying Options for Protecting the Monarch Butterfly (Monarch Approach document). EPA’s approach to Monarch conservation comes shortly after the White House released its National Pollinator Health Strategy, intended to “reverse pollinator losses and help restore populations to healthy levels.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is also in the midst of conducting a review of the Monarch butterfly to determine whether the species is eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The number of Monarchs reaching their winter breeding grounds in Mexico has fallen by 90% in less than 20 years. This year’s population was the second lowest since surveys began two decades ago. The critical driver of this decline has been linked to the loss of milkweed, the only plant on which Monarchs will lay their eggs, along their migration route, which […]
Posted in Alternatives/Organics, Announcements, Chemicals, Glyphosate, Litigation, National Politics, Pesticide Regulation, Pollinators, Take Action, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, March 18th, 2015
(Beyond Pesticides March 18, 2015) Fifty-two members of Congress penned a letter to the White House, calling for the protection of the Monarch butterfly, which has declined by 90 percent in the last 20 years, and for listing as a ”˜threatened’ species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This comes on the heels of a formal  notice  of intent to sue submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to protect threatened and endangered species, including butterflies, amphibians and birds, from flupyradifurone, a newly approved systemic insecticide. The letter sent to President Obama on Tuesday was spearheaded by Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME), a long-time advocate for protecting monarch butterflies. In her press release, Rep. Pingree notes that the annual migration of monarchs from North America to Mexico has plummeted because of the use of herbicides on genetically engineered (GE) crops in the U.S.  The herbicides have wiped out milkweed, the main food for monarchs.  According to the letter, efforts by farmers, local, state and federal agencies to boost habitat are laudable, but without changes in how the federal government addresses the use of herbicides, especially as applied to herbicide-resistant crops, vital monarch habitats will simply continue to […]
Posted in Announcements, Bayer, Chemicals, Corporations, Cyantraniliprole, National Politics, neonicotinoids, Pollinators, Sulfoxaflor, thiacloprid | No Comments »
Friday, February 27th, 2015
(Beyond Pesticides, February 27, 2015) New research from the University of Minnesota presents some of the first evidence linking the bee-killing insecticides known as neonicotinoids to monarch butterfly deaths. The study finds that milkweed plants, which monarch butterflies need to survive, may also retain neonicotinoids from nearby plants, making milkweed toxic to monarchs. Monarch population numbers have fallen by 90% in less than 20 years. This year’s population was the second lowest since careful surveys began two decades ago. The critical driver of monarch decline  is the loss of larval host plants in their main breeding habitat, the midwestern Corn Belt. Monarchs lay eggs exclusively on plants in the milkweed family, the only food their larvae will eat. University of Minnesota entomologist Vera Krischik, Ph.D. fed butterflies milkweed plants treated with the neonicotinoid insecticide known as imidacloprid in amounts that might typically be found on backyard plants. While adult monarchs and painted lady butterflies were not affected, which, according to Dr. Krischik, indicates the ability of the adults to detoxify, the larvae of both species of butterflies died. During the course of the study, larvae fed on the treated plants for seven days. “For the monarch, nobody was left that […]
Posted in Chemicals, Glyphosate, Imidacloprid, Litigation, National Politics, Persistence, Pesticide Residues, Pollinators, State/Local, Take Action, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 9th, 2015
(February 9, 2015, Beyond Pesticides) A report, Monarchs in Peril: Herbicide-Resistant Crops and the Decline of Monarch Butterflies in North America, released by Center for Food Safety (CFS) last week, reveals the devastating  impact of Monsanto’s and the nation’s biggest selling herbicide, Roundup (glyphosate), on the survival  of monarch butterflies. The herbicide is  used to treat  millions of acres of herbicide-tolerant  genetically engineered (GE) crops, eliminating the monarchs’ sole source  of food, milkweed, and approaching  a collapse of their population, which has plummeted over the past 20  years. The report cites findings that  glyphosate use on Roundup Ready  (glyphosate-tolerant) crops has nearly eradicated milkweed around farmland in the monarchs’ vital midwest breeding ground. At the urging of scientists and public interest groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is currently considering listing the monarch as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). “This report is a wake-up call. This iconic species is on the verge of extinction because of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crop system,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director at Center for Food Safety. “To let the monarch butterfly die out in order to allow Monsanto to sell its signature herbicide for a few more years is […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Chemicals, Corporations, Glyphosate, Litigation, Monsanto, National Politics, Pollinators, Take Action, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 6th, 2015
(Beyond Pesticides, January 6, 2015) At the close of 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced plans to conduct a year-long status review of the monarch butterfly to determine whether the species is eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). FWS is taking this action as result of an August 2014 legal petition filed by health and environmental groups that presented substantial information indicating that listing under the ESA may be warranted. In November 2014, Beyond Pesticides joined over 200 environmental groups and businesses in a letter asking for federal protection for monarch butterflies in the wake of shocking declines. The North American monarch butterfly population fell by 90 percent in the past 20 years, dropping from a high of approximately  one billion in the mid-1990s to fewer than 35 million butterflies in the winter of 2013-2014— the lowest number ever recorded. Each year monarch butterflies travel over 2,000 miles between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, across multiple generations, to reach their winter hibernation grounds in late October. As FWS indicates, this journey has become “more perilous for many monarchs” due to threats along their migratory paths. Scientists believe the butterfly’s decline is being driven in […]
Posted in Agriculture, Announcements, Chemicals, Genetic Engineering, Lawns/Landscapes, Litigation, neonicotinoids, Pollinators, Take Action, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | No Comments »
Friday, November 14th, 2014
(Beyond Pesticides, November 14, 2014) In the face of staggering declines of monarch butterflies, more than 40 leading scientists and 200 organizations and businesses this week urged the Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Sally Jewell, to protect these butterflies under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These groups and scientists are supporting the formal petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) submitted this summer, which seeks federal protection for monarch butterflies. Forty scientists from around the U.S. and Mexico signed on to a letter requesting protected status for the butterflies and for FWS to recognize the importance of continued research by scientists and citizen scientists in understanding and conserving the monarch butterfly and its habitat. The scientists also request FWS to streamline the permitting process, so that scientific and conservation research and citizen science activities are encouraged rather than deterred by a listing. In a separate letter, over 200 environmental groups and businesses called on FWS to take swift and effective action by granting the monarch butterfly protection as a threatened species under the ESA. Both letters come in support of a formal petition to FWS seeking federal protection for monarchs. The petition was filed in August […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Litigation, National Politics, Pollinators, Take Action, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | No Comments »
Friday, October 31st, 2014
(Beyond Pesticides, October 31, 2014) Without any mention of the role of pesticides in bee decline, or emphasis on organic practices to help pollinators, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Wednesday that more than $4 million in technical and financial assistance will be provided to help farmers and ranchers in the Midwest improve the health of honey bees. The announcement renews and expands on a $3 million pilot investment last spring to create pollinator-friendly habitat in five Midwestern states. The effort responds to the Presidential Memorandum, which directs USDA to expand the acreage and forage value in its conservation programs. The Memorandum, issued at the close of National Pollinator Week 2014, directed federal agencies to establish a Pollinator Health Task Force, and tasked agency leads at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a pollinator health strategy within 180 days that supports and fosters pollinator habitat. “The future of America’s food supply depends on honey bees, and this effort is one way USDA is helping improve the health of honey bee populations,” Vilsack said. “Significant progress has been made in understanding the factors that are associated with Colony Collapse Disorder and the overall health […]
Posted in acetamiprid, Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Announcements, Chemicals, Clothianidin, dinotefuron, Lawns/Landscapes, Michigan, Minnesota, neonicotinoids, North Dakota, Pollinators, South Dakota, State/Local, Take Action, thiacloprid, Thiamethoxam, Wisconsin | No Comments »
Friday, August 29th, 2014
(Beyond Pesticides, August 29, 2014) Environmentalists issued a legal petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday calling for the protection of the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the  Endangered Species Act (ESA). Monarch butterflies, a striking and familiar symbol of beauty and nature in the U.S., have had their population decline by a staggering 90 percent in the past two decades alone, most likely due to a significant loss of habitat of more than 165 million acres – an area about the size of Texas -as well as nearly a third of their summer breeding grounds. Part of the decline of monarch butterflies  stems from the loss of milkweed, a native plant where the butterflies lay their eggs and is their main food source. Although little use to farmers, milkweed is an important plant to butterflies, wasps, and bees. A recent study attributed the disappearance of milkweed plants primarily to the use of genetically-engineered (GE) corn and soybean crops. The widespread adoption of GE agriculture and the ever-growing use of herbicides are contributing extensively to the loss of milkweed areas. Scientists also point to the prolific use of herbicides in the Midwest eliminating these plants, […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Lawns/Landscapes, Litigation, Pollinators, Take Action, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 21st, 2014
(Beyond Pesticides, January 21, 2013) Two Minnesota state agencies are creating plans they say will  address declining pollinator populations in the state. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is developing best management practices for managing and increasing pollinator habitat and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is developing a plan to study the impacts of neonicotinoid pesticides on pollinators. Critics of the state’s plan say that there is no more need to study the effects of neonicotinoids because the negative impacts they have on pollinators has been already studied extensively. The DNR is developing guidelines to improve habitat for pollinator insects. Recent reports show that  the planting of herbicide-resistant genetically engineered (GE) crops is responsible for habitat loss and the decline of native pollinators like the Monarch butterfly. The expansion of glyphosate tolerant GE corn and soybean cropland has allowed farmers to kill milkweed, the primary source of food for Monarchs, which historically grew between crop rows in the Midwest. A rapid expansion of farmland ””more than 25 million new acres in the U.S. since 2007”” has also eaten away grasslands and conservation reserves that supplied the Monarchs with milkweed. DNR officials have indicated this guide could change […]
Posted in Agriculture, Chemicals, Minnesota, neonicotinoids, Pollinators, State/Local, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 9th, 2013
(Beyond Pesticides, December 9, 2013) Unless regulators take action,  one of the gifts in the lyrics to “Twelve Days of Christmas,” the turtle dove,  may  become extinct. The dove has experienced major population decline in England over the past 20 years, due in significant part to the destruction of  turtle dove habitat and food sources from  increasing herbicide use in English agriculture. Other species, such as Monarch butterflies and other pollinators around the world, are also experiencing similar loses of habitat and food sources through an increase in herbicide use. These increasing rates of population decline in wild species underscore the problem that chemical-intensive agriculture plays in the degradation of natural habitats. According to a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, “The turtle dove is the fastest declining bird in the country [England] and within ten years we could lose this icon of the British countryside completely.” Turtle doves in the United Kingdom are found in just a few areas of Southern England and migrate during the winter toward Africa. Turtle doves are obligate granivors, feeding predominantly on seeds of certain arable weeds form farm countryside, such as fumitory, clover and vetch. However, increased herbicide use […]
Posted in Agriculture, Alternatives/Organics, Contamination, Genetic Engineering, International, Wildlife/Endangered Sp. | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 20th, 2013
(Beyond Pesticides, March 20, 2013) Loss of habitat to genetically engineered (GE) cropland, as well as increasingly warm temperatures are responsible for the dramatic decline in Monarch butterfly populations, according to scientists who say populations are the lowest they have seen in two decades.  This comes as the state of pollinators continues to reach crisis levels, with honey bee colonies also experiencing alarming declines. Scientists who take the annual measure of Mexican forestland famously occupied by migrating monarch butterflies find that forestland occupied by the butterflies, once as high at 50 acres, dwindled to 2.94 acres. This is a 59 percent decline from the 7.14 acres of butterflies measured in December 2011. The survey carried out in December and January, reported nine monarch colonies wintering in central Mexico, occupying a total of 1.19 hectares, or 2.94 acres. The results were released by the World Wildlife Fund-Mexico, and Mexico’s National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP). This population is the smallest recorded since the Monarch colonies came to the attention of scientists in 1975. To explain this drastic decline, researchers point to the loss of Monarch habitat in the U.S. and Mexico to increasing cropland and the widespread use of the […]
Posted in Genetic Engineering, Pollinators | 1 Comment »
