The Monarch: Rallying Call of A Dying Butterfly

Several months ago, I reviewed Barbara Kingsolver’s New York Times Bestseller Flight Behavior. The story, whose premise is climate change and its affect on the monarch butterfly migration, is told through the eyes of Dellarobia Turnbow, a rural housewife in Tennessee, who yearns for meaning in her life. In the opening, Dellarobia stumbles upon a monarch massing in the forested hills above her farm. Although Dellarobia doesn’t realize it yet, that moment proves life-changing for her:  

“A small shift between cloud and sun altered the daylight, and the whole landscape intensified, brightening before her eyes. The forest blazed with its own internal flame…The mountain seemed to explode with light. Brightness of a new intensity moved up the valley in a rippling wave. Like the disturbed surface of a lake. Every bough glowed with an orange blaze…Trees turned to fire…The flame now appeared to lift from individual treetops in shows of orange sparks, exploding the way a pine log does in a campfire when it’s poked. The sparks spiraled upwards in swirls like funnel clouds….It was a lake of fire, something far more fierce and wondrous than either of those elements alone. The impossible…She was on her own here, staring at glowing trees…Unearthly beauty had appeared to her, a vision of glory to stop her in the road. For her alone these orange boughs lifted, these long shadows became brightness rising. It looked like the inside of joy, if a person could see that. A valley of lights, and ethereal wind. It had to mean something.”

Since that review, COSEWIC (the committee on the status of endangered wildlife in Canada) reported that the monarch is now officially “endangered”, victim to habitat loss of wintering grounds (through illegal logging) in Mexico, along with increasing destruction of milkweed caterpillar breeding habitat by drought and insecticide in Canada and the United States. While GMO corn, canola and soybeans have been engineered to be immune to the herbicide Round-Up (glyphosate), which is used liberally in large corporate farms, milkweed and other native “weeds” are destroyed.

The monarch butterfly migration is now recognized as a “threatened process” by the International

Union for Conservation of Nature. The monarch has precipitously declined—by 90% in the last two decades since Round-Up was aggressively introduced. Our role in Canada is paramount as part of the monarch’s cycle. Overwintering butterflies leave Mexico in early spring and migrate into the southern US, where they lay their eggs on milkweed plants before dying. Like in a relay race, the caterpillar offspring feed exclusively on milkweed, then as adults migrate further north into Canada to reproduce again and then return to Mexico to overwinter.

Future generations of monarchs, faced with changing climates, may have a hard time finding their way home, writes Nayantara Narayanan in a recent Scientific American article (2013). “A monarch butterfly navigates using a sun compass in its mid-brain and circadian clocks in its antennae. But, until now, what makes a monarch reverse its direction has remained a mystery. New research shows that the chill at the start of spring triggers this switch. Monarch butterflies, having flown south in the fall, reorient themselves and start flying north after they've been exposed to lower temperatures, according to the study published … in Current Biology.” Researchers had to “go from signal to behavior” to figure it out. They determined that with temperature being a critical trigger for the monarch’s northward journey, climate change could be a “big spoilsport in its mass migration.” Unruly and unseasonal storms coupled with microclimate degradation (e.g., logging forests and killing milkweed through drought), are impacting monarch survival.

The monarch butterfly is just one species—a sentinel, if you will—in what many scientists are calling the largest mass-ever extinction in Earth’s history; and one caused by runaway global warming. Two hundred and fifty million years ago, 90% of all living things were wiped out in the Permian mass extinction. Researchers in Canada, Italy, Germany and the US argue that volcanic eruptions pumped massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the air, causing average temperatures to rise by eight to 11°C in their paper in the journal Palaeoworld. This melted vast amounts of methane (just like what is currently happening in the shelf sediments and permafrostregions of the northern hemisphere), causing temperatures to soar even further to levels “lethal to most life on land and in the oceans.”

Climate change—and all that is associated with it—is altering our planet irreparably, one sure-footed step at a time. And it is doing this regardless of geographic boundary, political affiliation, scientific knowledge or religious belief. Climate change is a global phenomenon that can provide us with the very best opportunity to unite as a global community.

In 2014, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico cooperated as Justin Trudeau, Barack Obama and Enrique Pena Nieto signed the North American Climate, Clean Energy, and Environment Partnership Action Plan—something, which I wonder if the current U.S. administration will now honour.

Focusing on the monarch or any other sentinel is a sound rallying approach that can have significant cumulative effects. The entire world is inexorably linked, after all.

You save the monarch; you save the world.

Kingsolver ends her book with Dellarobia caught in a mountain flood that may take her life; yet, she remains suspended—transfixed in the moment of the miracle unfolding before her. The monarchs survived the winter and are taking flight:

“The vivid blur of their reflections glowed on the rumpled surface of the water, not clearly defined as individual butterflies but as masses of pooled, streaky color, like the sheen of floating oil, only brighter, like a lava flow…Her eyes held steady on the fire bursts of wings reflected across the water, a merging of flame and flood. Above the lake of the world, flanked by white mountains, they flew out to a new earth.”

Let us hope that we are part of that new earth.

Things that you can do to help:

• Plant a butterfly garden. Add plants that take the monarch from tiny egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to adult. These include plants in the milkweed family and nectar-rich blooming plants. Most nurseries sell pollinator mix seeds.
• Plant milkweeds in your garden. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed plants. The adults get most of their energy from the nectar of plants.
• Place your garden where it receives lots of sunlight but is also protected from the elements. You can create a shelter using trees, shrubs and perennials as well as logs and stones. Flat stones can serve as hot spots for butterflies to get warm.
•  Write your MLA / MNA / MPP and the minister responsible for environmental issues. Let them know you are concerned. Letters are important and taken very seriously by government; they understand that for every letter sent there are many who think similarly but aren’t writing.

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of award-nominated speculative novels, short stories and non-fiction. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s recent book is the bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” (Mincione Edizioni, Rome). Her latest “Water Is…” is currently an Amazon Bestseller and NY Times ‘year in reading’ choice of Margaret Atwood.

Hero Against the Bully: Rachel Parent and GMO Labeling

When she was twelve years old, Rachel Parent did a school project on genetically modified foods. It changed her life.

That was two years ago. Today, Parent is the founder of Kids Right to Know, an organization that promotes labeling food to reflect its content, and she speaks at events like the recent global “March on Monsanto” in Toronto, ON. She scored several goals in a face off with Kevin O’Leary on CBC’s TheLang and O’Leary Exchange.  

In that short time since her school project, this young teenager has informed herself extremely well and can eloquently explain her position on the right to know labeling campaign, what risks GMO products pose to the environment and ourselves, and the insidious nature of how multinational GMO-producing corporations like Monsanto are contributing to this potential negative impact.

Her main issue is also mine: the purposeful deception by corporations (and governments) for self-serving reasons. Being a bully. Not playing nice.

The Right To Know

Rachel Parent

No matter what people might believe about GMO and its effects on ecosystem function, biological integrity and human health, enough concern has been raised to warrant clarity in product description. This is a democratic right.

Our democratic free world is predicated on transparency and freedom of choice. Citizens of the world have demonstrated the need to know and choose according to their beliefs. In order to make informed choices, we must have enough information—in this case the presence, or not, of GM foods in consumables. Mandatory labeling of consumables made from GMO products currently exists throughout the world—with the exception of most of the United States (some states like Connecticut have instituted their own laws) and Canada. “Canada,” Parent tells us, “is one of only two industrialized nations in the world that don’t have mandatory GMO labeling. The other country is the United States.”

“The truth is,” says Parent, “it’s no coincidence that since GMOs have been introduced into our food system, we’ve started seeing more cases of irritable bowel syndrome, leaky gut syndrome, acid reflux, infertility, cancer, autism, Parkinson’s and many other diseases. Unfortunately, it seems like we’re all a big part of a science experiment.” She adds, “All of this could lead up to be the most devastating, destructive, unspoken environmental catastrophe of all time. “Unfortunately, the media is not talking about it because most of their advertisers are brands that use GM ingredients. In fact, over 90% of the advertised packaged goods that are advertised on TV contain GMOs, such as corn, canola, soy, vegetable oils and high fructose corn syrup.”

Parent’s goal is “to make sure that food is clearly and accurately labeled [for all Canadians] and then people can choose for themselves.”  Parent has certainly made up her mind and chosen for herself. But, having made that choice, she admits to the challenge of living by it, based on the lack of sufficient labeling. So, Parent makes a best guess, based on what she knows. She avoids corn, canola, soy, and vegetable oil “because,” says Parent, “if you’re eating food that contains these ingredients, there’s about a 90% chance that they contain GMOs.” The evidence, in fact, is clear regarding the risk to both human health andnatural ecosystems that GMO pose.  For instance, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) reported that “several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food.” Studies identified infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, faulty insulin regulation, and changes to major organs and the gastrointestinal system as impacts created by GM foods.

The AAEM asked physicians to advise patients to avoid GMfoods. The only human feeding experiment revealed that the genetic material inserted into GM soy transfers into bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function—long after we stop eating GM foods.  While no study has been done to date about gene transfer, if the antibiotic gene inserted into most GM crops were to transfer, it could create super diseases, resistant to antibiotics. If the gene that creates Bt-toxin in GM corn were to transfer, it might turn our intestinal bacteria into living pesticide factories. 

In a recent interview with Courtney Shea of Toronto’s The Grid, Parent explained that Health Canada’s official position of genetically modified food being as healthy as other food is based on dangerously limited and potentially biased scientific evidence: “Health Canada relies on tests that are conducted by the [very] companies [who produce the product] … and who stand to profit from GMOs. The companies doing the testing are only testing for [periods of] 90 days. How does 90 days determine how these things might affect us in the long term?”

This is the $$$$$ question.  

What Is Really Being Tested?

The acute 90-day test used by Monsanto and other GMO researchers, is just one of many types of toxicity tests conducted by toxicologists in risk assessment studies of varying exposure.

One can generally characterize toxicity tests as:

1) Acute Tests, which test the immediate, worse-case effects of a compound, usually measured through the concentration that kills fifty percent of the organisms tested: LC₅₀); and

2) Chronic Toxicity Tests, which assess a quantitative biological function, usually growth or reproductive success (not death), usually measured through the NOEC [no observed effect concentration]).

Both kinds of tests should be run to provide a realistic and robust measure of effect (e.g., both intense short term and chronic long term). The latter is more often what occurs in the real world because of its insidious nature. Low dose chronic exposure is therefore a critical measure for the following reasons: 1) this dose is less likely to be noticed and may add to critical accumulative effects; 2) because of this, chronic doses may exist for prolonged periods with greater hidden adverse effects; 3) this dose may affect different receptors than higher doses with great hidden costs; 4) this dose, though not lethal, is less likely to be regulated and therefore more likely to contribute to aggressive negative synergy; 5) this dose is more likely to be encountered and persist in the environment for all the reasons given above.

In 2012, French and Italian scientists headed by Gilles-Eric Seralini (see the entire Séralini et al. paper here), published the results of a two-year long term sub-chronic toxicity study of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize in Food and Chemical Toxicity—the first of its kind. Authors concluded in their paper that: "The results of the study...clearly demonstrate that lower levels of complete agricultural guy-phosphate herbicide formulations, at concentrations well below officially set safety limits, induce severe hormone-dependent mammary,hepatic and kidney disturbances."

Despite the barrage of bad press and efforts to discredit the two-year study on rats (it has since been validated by the European Food and Safety Authority), the paper’s results cannot be refuted entirely or ignored (if only from the basis of scientific inquiry and professional due diligence to do with Type II Error).

  

The Truth and Other Lies

In November 2012, California’s Proposition 37, the bill to enforce the labeling of GMO products, was defeated. In an article entitled, “Writing About Truth…and Other Lies” I explored why. Over $47 million dollars were spent to fight the California ballot for the right to know. That campaign ultimately revealed a surprising “who’s who” in the GMO controversy. When some of the largest “organic” brands like Kashi, Cascadian Farm, and Horizon Organic joined the anti-labeling effort, it was no surprise that these “organic” brands are owned by larger conglomerates like Kellogg, General Mills, Dean Foods, Smucker’s and Coca-Cola—all companies, along with Monsanto, PepsiCo., Neslé and ConAgra Foods, that use GMO materials in their products. Companies who supported the bill to label GMO products included Whole Foods, Nature’s Path (a Canadian company) Organic Valley, Cliff Bar and Amy’s Kitchen—brands that do not use GMO.

Whenever an issue of importance arises, the truth reveals itself. When someone fights against transparency, condones secrecy, and ultimately promotes deception alarm bells should go off.

The controversy over the benefits and risks of GMO products continually rages today, despite sound research findings from years of experimentation that provide alarming evidence on the risks of GMO practice, both to the Earth’s ecosystems and human health directly. I’m sad to say that much of the controversy is due to huge propaganda efforts by multi-nationals (and governments) who have created an Orwellian reality that has made a lie “a truth”.  It is interesting to note here that when someone like Rachel Parent, does her homework and speaks out, she is challenged and berated by media buffoons.

In her article The Seeds of Suicide: How Monsanto Destroys Farming in Global Research, Dr. Vandana Shiva tells us that, “Control over seed is the first link in the food chain because seed is the source of life. When a corporation controls seed, it controls life, especially the life of farmers.”

Dr. Shiva adds, “Patents on seed are illegitimate because putting a toxic gene into a plant cell is not “creating” or “inventing” a plant. These are seeds of deception — the deception that Monsanto is the creator of seeds and life; the deception that while Monsanto sues farmers and traps them in debt, it pretends to be working for farmers’ welfare, and the deception that GMOs feed the world. GMOs are failing to control pests and weeds, and have instead led to the emergence of superpests and superweeds… A renewable resource became a non-renewable, patented commodity.”

Ecosystem Risks and Dangers of GMO

In 2007 I published an article here entitled “Biomimicry,Nature’s Alternative to Genetically Engineered Foods”, I explored the risks to ecosystem balance posed by genetically engineered crops.  In the article I reiterated ecologists’ fear—based on years of research—of potential devastation from genetically modified crops released in the natural ecosystem. Jane Rissler of the Union of Concerned Scientists of America suggested that transgenic science practices may release a seemingly harmless gene into our food supply with life-threatening consequences. 

“The genome is a miniature ecosystem,” said Dr. Wes Jackson, director of the Land Institute in Kansas, a non-profit research facility devoted to alternative agricultural practices. He warns that, if misused, biotechnology may lead to the human-induced degradation of the genomes of plant species. “What is being more or less ignored” in the rush to biotechnology, he said in an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education, “is that some of the same principles and processes that govern an ecosystem, like a forest or a prairie, also operate with genomes.”

Jackson and The Land Institute promotes “natural systems agriculture”, a polyculture of herbaceous perennials, that provide a natural alternative to genetically engineered crops.

Seralini Reference and Links to Other Studies:

Seralini, G.-E.,et al. Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize. Food Chem. Toxicol. (2012).

GM Corn Damages Liver and Kidneys 


Meat Raised on GM Feed is Different


Roundup Could Cause Birth Defects


Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility

Damaging Effects of Roundup 


GM Crops Do Not Increase Yields 


GMOs Inevitably Contaminate and Persist 


Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.

Monsanto and GMOs: a Model of Greed

According to the David Suzuki Foundation, “companies that develop and patent GMO seeds are the same companies that develop and patent the pesticides and herbicides to which the unique seeds are resistant. Monsanto is the largest seed company in the world and owns about 86% of GMO seeds sown globally. It is also the parent of Roundup.” Suzuki adds that, “the safety of GMO foods is unproven and a growing body of research connects these foods with health concerns and environmental damage. For this reason, most developed nations have policies requiring mandatory labeling of GMO foods at the very least, and some have issued bans on GMO food production and imports.”

In Canada we don’t require labeling of GMO products. Canadians are often unaware that the foods we choose contain GMO ingredients.

GMO Labeling & the Right to Know

On May 25, 2013, two million people in over 50 countries expressed outrage over Monsanto's desire to own the food supply through genetically-altered (and patented) seeds, according to Jonathan Landsman of Natural News.

Rachel Parent on CBC TV

Fourteen-year old Canadian Rachel Parent was just awarded “Environmental Hero” by NOW Magazine in Toronto for her energetic work on “the right to know”. Parent is a fearless human rights advocate, journalist, speaker and Healthy Planet Watchdog. This mercurial energetic young woman founded the “Kids Right to Know—Just Label it!” campaign  (www.gmo-news.com) and actively participates in the “conversation” on GMOs throughout Canada.

Parent was a keynote speaker at the March Against Monsanto rally in Toronto the same day and discussed GMO labeling: “Over 60 countries around the world have mandatory GMO labeling, including China and Russia,” said Parent. “Canada and the US are the only two industrialized nations that don’t. In the countries that have mandatory labeling, products that contain GMOs are hardly found because people won’t buy them. In fact, over 30 countries have outright bans on GMOs.”

Parent cited Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Kellogg’s, Nestle, Kraft, Frito-Lay and PepsiCo among the companies that spent over $47 million in ad campaigns to defeat the California bill to label GMO products.

“The truth is,” said Parent, “it’s no coincidence that since GMOs have been introduced into our food system, we’ve started seeing more cases of irritable bowel syndrome, leaky gut syndrome, acid reflux, infertility, cancer, autism, Parkinson’s and many other diseases. Unfortunately, it seems like we’re all a big part of a science experiment.”

“Here in Canada,” said Parent, “[Monsanto is] putting thousands of conventional and organic farms at risk because of contamination by GMO crops. Their herbicides and pesticides are polluting our air and water and have contributed to the collapse of over 50% of our bee colonies. They’re responsible for a whole new species of super weeds and superbugs that have become Roundup resistant so now more and stronger toxic pesticides are being used.”

“All of this could lead up to be the most devastating, destructive, unspoken environmental catastrophe of all time,” she concluded. “Unfortunately, the media is not talking about it because most of their advertisers are brands that use GM ingredients. In fact, over 90% of the advertised packaged goods that are advertised on TV contain GMOs, such as corn, canola, soy, vegetable oils and high fructose corn syrup.”

On the heels of the recent failure of Proposition 37 in California, I was glad to hear that on June 3, 2013, Connecticut became the first US state to pass mandatory labeling legislation for genetically engineered food ingredients. The compromise law, however, requires that four other states pass similar legislation in order to “trigger” Connecticut’s labeling requirement. One of the states must share a border with Connecticut and their combined population must equal at least 20 million people.

Cultivating Cultural Genocide

Monsanto Company is a publicly traded American multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation and leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed and the herbicide glyphosate (marketed as Roundup). The company used to make DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange and recombinant bovine somatrotropin. It currently focuses on providing genetically modified seeds to farmers and agribusinesses. Monsanto’s biotechnology has created DNA-modified seeds that can endure pesticides and herbicides. They also created the “terminator seed”, which produces plants that will never yield fertile seeds.

Monsanto was among the first to genetically modify a plant cell in 1983 and conducted field trials of genetically modified crops in 1987. Monsanto pioneered the biotechnology industry business model in agriculture, using techniques developed by Genentech and other biotech drug companies. In this model companies invest heavily in research and development and recoup the expenses through the use and enforcement of biological patents. In the 1980s Monsanto applied the model to agriculture as part of a growing movement to create a global, uniform system of plant breeder’s rights. This conflicted with the customary practices of farmers to save, reuse, share and develop plant varieties. Its seed-patenting model has been rightly criticized as biopiracy and threatens ecosystem biodiversity.

Parent effectively summarized the insidious nature of Monsanto’s business model: “Monsanto’s trying to change the way farming has been done for thousands of years by patenting their seeds and making it illegal to save or share seeds with other farmers. Do you know why? Because farmers have to buy new seeds from Monsanto every year. This makes it more expensive for farmers and ultimately for us, the consumers. And it gets worse because if some of Monsanto’s [seeds or pollen] fly over and cross-pollinate with seeds on a neighbouring field, Monsanto then sues the farmer for stealing their intellectual property. I know this sounds ridiculous and rather criminal of Monsanto, but it’s a reality for our farmers. Now [Monsanto is] trying to introduce GM alfalfa in Canada. Farmers are concerned that if it’s allowed it will contaminate all-natural alfalfa, which is a feedstock for animals. And so even organic meat and diary products could become contaminated with GMOs. The funny thing is there’s no need for GM alfalfa. Alfalfa naturally, without pesticides, keeps weeds down on its own. This is another case of Monsanto creating a solution for a problem that just doesn’t exist. All so they can sell more chemicals.”

Earlier this year, on March 26^th, President Obama signed H.R. 933 with a provision called the Monsanto Protection Act. The Monsanto Protection Act protects Monsanto from being sued for health damages caused by the use of their genetically modified crops.

Maribel Hermosillo of Policymic adds that, “Monsanto's practices with GMO seeds can do more than just hurt the public health; they can also destroy traditional farming methods in communities around the world.”

The insidious nature of Monsanto’s GMO seed production is that, while their poster line is “we are feeding the hungry of the world”, they are, in fact, monopolizing the seed industry across the world through genetic engineering to create more revenue.  It’s a simple model of greed.

In her article The Seeds of Suicide: How Monsanto Destroys Farming in Global Research, Dr. Vandana Shiva tells us that, “Control over seed is the first link in the food chain because seed is the source of life. When a corporation controls seed, it controls life, especially the life of farmers.”

Dr. Shiva adds, “Patents on seed are illegitimate because putting a toxic gene into a plant cell is not “creating” or “inventing” a plant. These are seeds of deception — the deception that Monsanto is the creator of seeds and life; the deception that while Monsanto sues farmers and traps them in debt, it pretends to be working for farmers’ welfare, and the deception that GMOs feed the world. GMOs are failing to control pests and weeds, and have instead led to the emergence of superpests and superweeds… A renewable resource became a non-renewable, patented commodity.”

“One way they have been able to monopolize the seed industry,” says Hermosillo, “is by cutting a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). When countries are in debt, they can ask the IMF for loans to rejuvenate the economy. Some of the conditions of the IMF loan include sustainable practices the country must implement in order to revitalize the economy with western capitalistic development. However, one of the conditions of the IMF includes preferential access to markets by agricultural conglomerates such as Monsanto. Countries impacted by Monsanto include India, Mexico, Liberia and Paraguay.”

My 2007 short story Julia’s Gift explores a family’s personal tragedy—and a  victorious outcome—during a turbulent post-GMO war between pro-biotechnologists and pro-naturalist Gaians.  

Julia’s Gift appears in my short story collection Natural Selection, about the evolution of humanity and our planet, available on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other quality bookstores in your area. 

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.

Nina's book on water "Water Is..." (Pixl Press) represents the "Water Is..." combines personal journey with scientific discovery that explores water's many "identities" and ultimately our own.
culmination of over 25 years of service as a limnologist in Canada and examines the meaning of water. Part history, part science and part philosophy and spirituality,