Posted March 2, 2015
An
environmental group sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
accusing regulators of discounting the dangers of a widely used herbicide threatening
the declining monarch butterfly population, according to Reuters.
NBC News also published an article available here
and MSN News here.
The
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed suit against the (EPA) in U.S.
District Court in New York. The suit alleged the agency has failed to regard
warnings about the dangers to monarchs posed by glyphosate, the key ingredient
in a widely used herbicide such as, Monsanto Co's Roundup and other herbicides.
Federal
law requires EPA to ensure that pesticides it approves will not cause
"unreasonable adverse effects on the environment, including
wildlife," the lawsuit states. "However, the agency has never
considered glyphosate's impacts on monarchs," according to NBC
News.
“EPA is
taking a number of measures to protect the monarch butterfly and other
pollinators. With regard to pesticide exposure, EPA is looking holistically at
all herbicides, not only glyphosate, to determine the effects on monarchs and
resources critical to butterfly populations,” the agency said.
The
lawsuit states that the monarch population has declined from 1 billion in 1997
to 56.6 million this winter, and it seeks a court order to force EPA to
evaluate the effects of glyphosate on the monarch’s population, according to MSN.
The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service has launched a $3.2 million campaign to aid in
efforts supporting the butterfly’s habitat.
For more information on environmental law, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
