Plant pest or biological control

Linda Rogers llrogers at airmail.net
Fri Jun 16 14:49:31 EDT 2000


At 06:12 PM 6/16/2000 +0100, Anne Kilmer wrote:

. . . . "Monarchs, and other butterflies, are a crop now, though, reared by
countless butterfly farmers, and therefore under the aegis and auspices of
the USDA whether they are listed as pests or not."

	Why do you say butterfly farmers are countless?
	On what do you base this statement?
	"Countless" sounds so dramatic, like there
	are thousands of butterfly farmers and thus
	a tremendous threat to the environment and
	butterfly interests.

	The only successful sales avenue for butterfly
	breeders is the web, so it's easy to count the
	farmers.  Most have websites hosted by THE
	BUTTERFLY WEBSITE, and the sponsors are easily
	numbered.  There are FIFTY U.S. sponsors listed
	on The Butterfly Website.  In addition to
	those 50 breeders, if you do a keyword search
	on the web, perhaps as many as ten more farmers
	or companies will appear that are NOT on the
	Butterfly Website.  There are no more than ten
	that are not listed on TBW.  That's a whopping
	total of about 60 farmers.  Out of those 60,
	most raise fewer than 1,500 butterflies per year
	(each).  

	So, really the threat posed is really nil 
	when you think of the vast AREA of the U.S. 
	and the NUMBER OF BUTTERFLIES BEING RELEASED.  
	Not really a very big "crop" is it, when you 
	consider how big the "field" is.

	As a note, the 50 butterfly breeders I know
	are simply making money through the responsible
	use of natural resources.  

	Linda Rogers
	Butterfly Boutique
	IBBA Member www.butterflybreeders.org





"There is a soul force in the Universe, which,
    if we allow it, will flow through us 
       and produce miraculous results."
                       			- Gandhi -




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