After news broke that the Monarch butterfly had been put on the endangered species list, Michoacán cried foul. Not so! The migratory monarch population is doing just fine down here in Mexico, thank you. It’s all that herbicide up north, those hundreds of miles sprayed and denuded of all but corn and soybeans, and more corn and soybeans, not a bee or butterfly habitat in sight. (1)
Well, true about big ag on the US side decimating habitats of all pollinators, Monarch butterflies included. But the Mexico side is struggling, too. Monarch migrations are good business in Michoacán, a pillar of tourism in this no-beach region of Central Mexico. Tours to the Monarch reserves keep many a family fed. Guides, hotels, transport, restaurants — no one wants any hint that the spectacle of thousands of Monarchs glittering in the sun is getting any less, well, spectacular.
Yet global ag hangs like a chainsaw of Damocles over the pine forests in and around the Monarch reserves, too. The threat is not, most immediately, of herbicides, though that will come. Rather, quite simply, the big money is in big ag, not butterflies. Illegal logging, and ‘accidental’ fires clear the forests in preparation for avocado plantations controlled not by local smallholders, but by the big, often cartel-entwined producers growing for export. Growers earn up to four times as much for avocados sent to the US as to local markets — far more profitable than “preserving” forests for bugs, pretty as they may be. America needs its guac!
On this side of the border, though, unlike in the US, officials acknowledge the problem, and recognize causes. They at least talk about bolstering preservation programs and support for the people caring for the forests, even if actual delivery of funds and programs is questionable. (2)
In a major step to protect habitat, health, and indigenous agriculture, Mexico instituted a ban on GMO corn and glyphosate herbicide, way beyond anything achieved in the US. That ban, though, is being actively fought by chemical giant Bayer, who wants free rein to wipe out butterfly habitat here in Mexico as effectively as they have in the US. It is not at all clear that they won’t win in the courts.
Lots of blame, all tracing back to industrial agriculture spreading profit-first principles and environment-last practices around the world, with no accountability for the people, habitats, livelihoods, or food systems they uproot and displace in the process.
Uprooted 