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Monarch butterfly decline linked to spread of GM crops
CBC ^ | 6/4/2014 | Emily Chung

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 ...


TOPICS: Agriculture; Outdoors
KEYWORDS: agriculture; butterfly; crops; gmo; monarch
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To: Doctor 2Brains
North American frogs died off due to a skin fungus (Chytrid Fungus) thought to have been brought here from Africa infecting domestic frogs. This was blamed for years on pesticides and/or "climate change".

21 posted on 06/09/2014 6:27:40 AM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

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.


22 posted on 06/09/2014 6:27:40 AM PDT by 1_Rain_Drop
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

Why do we need so many Monarch butterflies anyway???


23 posted on 06/09/2014 6:29:06 AM PDT by Iscool
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

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.


24 posted on 06/09/2014 6:29:13 AM PDT by Paradox (Unexpected things coming for the next few years.)
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To: stars & stripes forever

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.


25 posted on 06/09/2014 6:31:38 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: stars & stripes forever
I haven’t seen turtles, frogs, garden snakes, or rabbits around my property for years. We live on a wooded property too.

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.

26 posted on 06/09/2014 6:59:39 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici (Melowese Richardson - Democrat Vote Fraud Expert)
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To: Iscool
"Why do we need so many Monarch butterflies anyway???"

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.

27 posted on 06/09/2014 7:05:10 AM PDT by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males---the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization).)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

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.


28 posted on 06/09/2014 7:37:50 AM PDT by Bigg Red (31 May 2014: Obamugabe officially declares the USA a vanquished subject of the Global Caliphate.)
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To: Doctor 2Brains

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.


29 posted on 06/09/2014 7:40:54 AM PDT by Bigg Red (31 May 2014: Obamugabe officially declares the USA a vanquished subject of the Global Caliphate.)
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To: GailA

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.


30 posted on 06/09/2014 7:43:28 AM PDT by Bigg Red (31 May 2014: Obamugabe officially declares the USA a vanquished subject of the Global Caliphate.)
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To: Durus

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?


31 posted on 06/09/2014 7:47:40 AM PDT by Bigg Red (31 May 2014: Obamugabe officially declares the USA a vanquished subject of the Global Caliphate.)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

had nothing to do with the massive die off a few years ago due to cold temperatures in mexico?


32 posted on 06/09/2014 7:53:44 AM PDT by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
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To: stockpirate

Uh, they have been genetically modifying food crops forever. What else is cross breeding and hybridization?


33 posted on 06/09/2014 8:16:11 AM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: ilovesarah2012

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.


34 posted on 06/09/2014 8:31:46 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: Vaquero

“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.


35 posted on 06/09/2014 8:33:06 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: stockpirate

“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...


36 posted on 06/09/2014 8:34:04 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: ilovesarah2012

Simple solution. Let the sobbing liberals buy up land and plant milkweed on it.


37 posted on 06/09/2014 8:41:51 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Doctor 2Brains

‘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.


38 posted on 06/09/2014 8:46:12 AM PDT by Foundahardheadedwoman (God don't have a statute of limitations)
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To: stockpirate
Our bodies are not designed to handle GM foods.

mine is...I had the upgrade

39 posted on 06/09/2014 8:51:56 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: Bigg Red
The virus (causing deformed frogs) and skin disease(killed adult frogs) ran it's course and the frogs came back.
40 posted on 06/09/2014 8:55:10 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proud Infidel, Gun Nut, Religious Fanatic and Freedom Fiend)
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