In 1970, Joni Mitchell penned the protest song Big Yellow Taxi after visiting Hawaii and seeing how developers had destroyed the local ecosystems’ natural habitat. It works as an anthem in today’s world, too, with lyrics such as “Hey, farmer, farmer, put away your DDT. I don’t care about spots on my apples; leave me the birds and the bees, please!” Abusive pesticides started poisoning crops 80 years ago. Pollinators – bees, butterflies, bats, birds, and moths – have been disappearing for decades thanks to habitat loss, disease, parasites, and environmental contaminants. These two developments have captured the determined attention of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who wants to enhance “organic, regenerative agriculture” nationwide. It’s MAHA at its best.
A recent study published in the professional journal Science says that 22% of butterflies have vanished over the past two decades. Research – and data analysis from 76,957 surveys across the country – show a troubling trend: For every five butterflies present in 2000, only four remain today. Some might scoff and think it’s just a butterfly, right?
Take milkweed: Plant farmers have called it a nuisance for centuries, but it is crucial for monarch butterflies. It serves as a host for their eggs and as the sole sustenance for the caterpillars, which feed on milky secretions from the leaves. Yet the monarch ecosystem has been almost eradicated in favor of more lucrative food crops, crowded urban development, fetching roadways, and pastoral fields.
To put the loss of milkweed in perspective, scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food consumed exists because of critter pollinators. And that makes the dying butterfly a more sinister proposition.
A Sordid History
For the past 20-plus years, Kennedy has been warning about chemicals in the soil that are “extraordinarily toxic.” Many — atrazine, neonicotinoids, glyphosate — have scientifically well-documented links to cancer, infertility, obesity, and developmental disorders. Now, another real threat is healthy food insecurity.
In 1939, Paul Hermann Müller, working at J.R. Geigy (now part of Novartis), discovered that DDT was highly effective at killing insects. In 1948, Müller received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the synthetic insecticide DDT’s effectiveness as a contact poison against arthropods, animals that have no backbone but do have a shell and jointed legs, ranging from centipedes to crustaceans, and that make up 80% of animal species.
Banned in the United States in 1972, DDT became the bogeyman when scientists and conservationists rang the alarm bell about the chemical’s ability to accumulate in the food chain and harm the health of humans and animals alike.
Quickly replacing the pesticide was the American agrochemical company Monsanto, which developed Roundup in the 1970s. In the 1980s, scientists at Shell and Bayer created what they believed would be a safer alternative to existing pesticides. They targeted insect nervous systems with neonicotinoids, which are chemically similar to nicotine, as the name implies.
In 2018, Bayer, a German multinational pharmaceutical and chemical corporation, acquired Monsanto — causing some to wonder if the tangled web of poison and pharmaceutical alliances may have worsened.
In March 2015, the World Health Organization classified glyphosate, a key ingredient in Monsanto’s blockbuster herbicide, Roundup Ready, as a “probable human carcinogen.” Even worse is the effect the toxin has on propagation. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council:
“Once in the soil, neonics remain active for years, and rain or irrigation water can easily carry them long distances to contaminate new soil, plant life, and water supplies. Given neonics’ widespread use, the result has been vast ecosystem contamination.”
Even in very small doses, neonicotinoids are killing off the bees and butterflies, disrupting their nervous systems, reducing their ability to find food and reproduce, and leading to death. Neonicotinoids and glyphosate are used on a wide range of crops — corn, soybeans, avocados, and even almonds, to name a few.
The MAHA Magic Touch
Kennedy said his goal is to develop an “organic, regenerative agriculture” system in the country. “I’m going to start using every mechanism I can to incentivize regenerative agriculture, which farmers want to do.” Such farming practices focus on creating and maintaining healthy soil and biodiversity with crop rotation, minimizing use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, increasing livestock grazing, and more.
Agribusiness heavily relies on pollinators, and their decline leads to reduced crop yields, increased food prices, and potential job losses in farming and adjacent businesses. The impact on food would be catastrophic. The world would have to get used to not having apples, pumpkins, strawberries, blueberries, almonds, chocolate, coffee, peaches, tomatoes, vanilla, and many other fruits, nuts, and vegetables.
The beef industry relies on pollinators for clover and alfalfa. Cotton farms would be a quaint reminder of the past, and plants pollinated by animals help prevent soil erosion and increase carbon sequestration.
How can MAHA fail at getting the job done with so much at stake? Eleven states have addressed the “extraordinarily toxic” chemicals used on our crops to combat pests: California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Washington is now part of the group that has legislatively restricted these chemicals for residential use.
Our entire food supply, ecosystems, and overall biodiversity, as well as more than 75% of the world’s flowering plants, rely on the local pollinator. Perhaps Kennedy can make saving the “birds and the bees” — and the butterflies — a top priority. Even Joni Mitchell wouldn’t complain about that.
