Monarchs and Monoculture in southern Michigan

[Ed Reinertsen]

Good Morning Neil and all

Maybe I need to do more research and I'm being silly, but this
morning I feel proud that the U.S. can grow GM crops to help
feed the hungry in the world. With the help of different people in
American growing butterfly gardens we can continue to hold the
historically large population of eastern monarchs. I would suggest
that this is a win, win situation.

Ed Reinertsen


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Neil Jones" <neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk>
To: <LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 6:21 AM
Subject: Re: Monarchs and Monoculture in southern Michigan


> On Friday 26 August 2005 06:57, Paul Cherubini wrote:
>> Ed Reinertsen wrote:
>> > E = Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
>> > A = Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
>> >
>> > Numbers & Year of Monarchs Tagged and Recovered in Mexico
>> >
>> > 1998     1999        2000      2001        2002      2003        2004
>> > E - 44    E - 164    E - 37    E - 974    E - 87    E - 854    E - 70
>> > A - 5     A - 34      A - 3     A - 84      A - 8      A - 131   A - 1
>> >
>> > Hope this helps? Clear as mud
>>
>> Wow, great job Ed! Everyone can see at a glance there was no
>> fundamental change in the tag recovery data after 2001 (after
>> the year when transgenic corn and soybeans.had become the
>> dominant crops grown in the upper Midwest) as compared to
>> before 2001.
>>
>> Paul Cherubini
>> El Dorado, Calif.
>
> As you very well know the major factor influencing monarch tag recoveries 
> is
> the weather in Mexico.  Despite knowing that your argument is false, you 
> have
> still insisted on posting it. These figures are meaningless in determing 
> the
> effect of transgenic soybeans.
>
> It is a really simple argument. Transgenic soya is created so that farmers 
> can
> spray the crop with Glyphosate which kills all the weeds but not the
> soybeans. When they do this it the weeds _including_ the milkWEED, which 
> the
> monarch caterpillars eat, die. This means less milkweed for monarch
> caterpillars. It is that simple.
>
> Even if Milkweed persists on the field margins for a few years, population
> dynamic research would indicate that those populations may be subject to
> decline over the long termbecause of the isolating effects of reducing
> habitat patch size. This, unlike your jolly jaunts with a digital camera, 
> is
> well documented proven research.
>
> For goodness sake wise up and stop being so silly.
> --
> Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.butterflyguy.com/
>
>
>
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