Another Nail in the Coffin

The Shreveport Times just published an article that suggests we could be helping to save monarch butterflies by planting milkweed in graveyards.  This is interesting and the concept has its attraction.  Graveyards are consistently beautified and flowers like those on the milkweed are a plus for the concept.    Additionally any milkweed planted for monarchs is a help and  nothing to scoff too lightly at.  Nonetheless within the scope of things we do to damage the butterfly and its habitats we have to see that that planting graveyards is painfully close to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  92 million acres of GM corn is sprayed with pesticides linked to the collapse of bee colonies and the overall crash of insect pollinators including the monarch butterfly.  When other GM crops like soybean, various fruits and vegetables are included in the tally, well over 200 million acres of land are compromised by the use of these non-target pesticides.  The real tragedy is that we have options and each and everyone of us can make a difference simply by buying food from your friends.  Local farmers, local farmers markets and where that is impossible, look for organic labels and spend the extra pennies.

Sadly there is a distinct irony considering that the amazing migration of the monarch butterfly brings it to its overwintering sites in Mexico on or about the Day of the Dead, but the idea that graveyards will replace the hundreds of millions of acres lost to GMO related pesticides just seems like another nail in the coffin for this species.