Evizda

A $3.2 million campaign to save the imperiled monarch butterfly, announced Monday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), fails to address the root cause of its decline and therefore does not go far enough to save the iconic species, says the Center for Food Safety.

The Center, which last week released a report detailing the significant impact recent agricultural practices—specifically Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crop system—have had on monarch habitat, has called for the pollinator to be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The butterfly’s decline has been linked to the proliferation of glyphosate, a primary ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup and one of the very few herbicides that kills milkweed. The monarch exclusively lays its eggs on plants in the milkweed family. 

While glyphosate was little used two decades ago, it has become by far the most heavily used herbicide in the U.S. thanks to glyphosate-resistant Roundup Ready corn and soybean crops, engineered by Monsanto. According to the Center for Food Safety, corn and soybean fields in the Corn Belt have lost 99 percent of their milkweed since 1999.

Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday it would provide $2 million in immediate funding for on-the-ground conservation projects, such as awareness campaigns and milkweed seed-planting efforts, as well as an additional $1.2 million to a new ‘Monarch Conservation Fund,’ the first dedicated source of funding for projects working to conserve the species.