Posted on 06/09/2014 5:05:10 AM PDT by NowApproachingMidnight
The main cause of the monarch butterfly's decline is the loss of milkweed its food in its U.S. breeding grounds, a new study has found. That all but confirms that the spread of genetically modified crops is indirectly killing the monarch.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
MY neighbors hate me.
They hate that because the lawn is not manicured looking.
I intentionally sow milkweed on my property.
I love the smell of milkweed flowers and watching the Monarch butterflies dance from flower to flower.
Now I have an excellent reason to grow this weed.
Why do we need so many Monarch butterflies anyway???
This is kind of a crap headline, the “problem” is not so much the GMO, but the fact that they can use indisciminate herbicides like glyphosate, and they do so, thus reducing the milkweed population.
Still plenty of turtles in Lake of the Ozarks.
We also occasionally see large, flat shelled turtles moving through our property.
I think these are land going critters, not water living.
I've lived in the suburbs of Orlando for 20 years. Today I see more wildlife than I've ever seen.
When we first moved here I never saw turkeys. Now they are like rats. Also gopher tortise, racoons, rabbits, snakes, hawks, armadillos, possum and alligators on a daily basis. Now even black bears are more abundant.
Thank you. I have a bug phobia and I can't stand the things. G. Gordon Liddy was right---butterflies are nothing but big ugly moths wearing fancy dresses.
What an idiot this writer is. Opposed as I am to GMOs, the loss of the milkweeds is not brought about by GMOs unless someone is planting GMO versions of milkweed plants.
I skimmed the source article and gathered that the biologist whose study inspired this clown’s article concluded that there was a loss of milkweed plants because the farmers are using herbicides to kill weeds. Pretty sure farmers were using herbicides before the introduction of GMOs.
I guess “GMO” is one of those terms that they just like to wave out there to get lefty loon attention.
I remember when it was the frogs that were mysteriously disappearing, by the way.
***
Funny you should mention the frog story. On a recent beautiful late spring evening, as I was sitting on my back porch, hearing the frog chorus made me wonder whatever happened to that narrative.
Well said.
Regarding the many insects, I wonder just how many invasives have been brought to the US in products from China, Viet Nam, Sri Lanka, Mexico, etc.
North American frogs died off due to a skin fungus ....
***
Thanks for that info. I had not heard that. Is there any conclusion on how the fungus reached the USA?
had nothing to do with the massive die off a few years ago due to cold temperatures in mexico?
Uh, they have been genetically modifying food crops forever. What else is cross breeding and hybridization?
Read this passage and you can see flaws in the argument and conflict of interest.
_____
Even before GM crops were adopted, milkweed was never overly abundant. Farmers found only 30 or 40 stems per acre, said Chip Taylor, an insect ecologist at the University of Kansas who was not involved in the study.
Despite the modest number plants, a survey done in 2000 found that corn and soybean fields were producing more monarchs per acre than anything else, said Dr. Taylor, who is also the director of Monarch Watch, a conservation and outreach group.
____
Bull flap, as another poster wrote, is probably an accurate assessment.
“still say it is bogus....sounds like a plan to vilify technology that will keep us fed. another zer0 plan to make us 3rd world material.”
Yes. Pretty much the case for all the anti-GM food propaganda.
“Our bodies are not designed to handle GM foods.”
Can you elaborate with some scientific details. How is this known? What is it due to? Etc...
Simple solution. Let the sobbing liberals buy up land and plant milkweed on it.
‘WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!’
This is true, we all are going to die, maybe sooner than we think. Research bees. Without them our crop yields will plummet, in some area bees are being imported to pollinate crops and have been for some years. Basically they are being rented by beekeepers in areas with an abundance to areas, mainly in the Midwest, where they are sparse. Beekeeper I know who is in the know thinks it is the stuff being put on lawns to keep down weeds, others think it is a virus. Dieoffs of entire bee farms, I guess you call them, are happening. Whatever the cause, once it is there it moves from hive to hive wiping them out.
Locally they are few here now, they were everywhere. You had to be careful walking barefoot years ago, not now. I am in Ky. As a kid I walked barefoot a lot, we got shoes for Christmas.
mine is...I had the upgrade
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.