How anti-GMO activists use monarch butterflies as ideological pawn

Amber Sherwood & Jon Entine | July 9, 2015

 I bet the vaquita wishes it had the monarch butterfly’s publicist.  What’s a vaquita? Also known as the Gulf of California harbor porpoise, it’s the rarest marine mammal in the world and listed on the World Wildlife Fund’s Endangered Species list as “critically endangered”. There are fewer than 100 vaquita left on the planet, yet you’ve probably never heard of the species. It’s future is tentative at best–and it doesn’t have a worldwide network of activists campaigning to rescue it.  Contrast this situation to the fate of the monarch butterfly, the focus of hundreds of environmental campaigns and even a meeting between the presidents of the United States, Mexico and Canada. While the monarch’s overwintering numbers in Mexico are sharply lower than decades ago–a decline that began well before the introduction of GM crops–it’s future is not in doubt; the vaquita is literally on its last fins.  Why is an organism that is not covered by the Endangered Species Act the focus of so much attention? For the most part, because the monarch butterfly has emerged as a convenient pawn in the anti-GMO game–it’s more strategic tool than a potential victim.......

 

Earlier this week, Monsanto announced it will match the initial $1.2 million government pledge to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund. The St. Louis company also said it will provide $2.4 million to match commitments from other federal agencies over the next three years.  The seed company also said it would give $400,000 to the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium and other groups to help the butterfly. The consortium is a partnership established earlier this year with Iowa State University and state agencies, farmers, conservationists, and other groups,

So far, there are no reports than any advocacy groups have pledged any rescue funds. No money has been offered by the Organic Consumers Association even though organic farmers, like all farmers, have been targeting milkweed for decades......To Read More....