The beautiful monarch butterfly, native to North America, is dying. Across the continent, monarchs have lost an alarming 90% of their population in just 20 years. And now we know why.

Monsanto is starving these majestic butterflies to death.

Monarchs feed on milkweed, a harmless weed that once grew wild across the continent. But Monsanto is peddling record amounts of Roundup, a
herbicide that kills almost anything that isn't a Monsanto-owned GMO -- including milkweed. Study after study has shown that as Roundup kills the milkweed, the butterflies are dying.

The US government has just announced a plan to save the butterflies by planting more milkweed, a welcome first step. Now, we need to built on the momentum.
Unless we tackle Monsanto and stop the spraying of Roundup, milkweed will keep disappearing and butterflies will keep dying. And this is our best shot yet of working towards an outright ban.

Tell the US government to stand up to Monsanto and protect the butterflies by banning Roundup!

This isn't a murder mystery. We know exactly who's killing the butterflies, and how. No matter how much the US tries to avoid facing the problem, the truth is
we can't save the monarchs unless we fight Monsanto.

An entire species is going extinct because of a single corporation. It's not even deliberate. Monsanto didn't intend to wipe out the butterflies, but it is still
downplaying the damage it's causing to monarch butterflies, just so it can keep profiting off of Roundup.

And yet, study after study has demonstrated what's happening. It's not controversial or contested science -- Roundup is a herbicide designed to kill plants like milkweed. When it's used in huge quantities on farms along the Monarch's entire migration path, applied to fields with crops engineered to be resistant, the effect on the ecosystem is huge. Huge enough to literally starve millions of butterflies who can no longer find their crucial food source, killed by indiscriminate Roundup spraying.

But together we can stop this. Already, hundreds of thousands of SumOfUs members have stood up in defense of bees, which are also under threat from corporations like Monsanto. Together we have defended these foods-chain-critical pollinators from extinction and forced corporations like Home Depot and Lowe's to regulate their bee-killing pesticides to protect our bee population. We've also mobilized SumOfUs shareholders to take action to bring some accountability to Monsanto's leadership structure. But now we need to target the US government to reign in Monsanto's destructive impact on our environment. The US government is already starting to act -- but it won't take on Monsanto unless we demand it.

Monarch butterflies will be extinct within our lifetimes if the US government doesn't stop Monsanto now! Tell the US government that the only way to truly protect the butterflies is to stop the widespread use of Monsanto's Roundup.

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More information:

Government Pledges $3 Million To Save Monarch Butterfly-- Huffington Post, 9 February 2015
Monarch Butterfly's Reign Threatened by Milkweed Decline-- National Geographic, 14 August 2014
The Missing Monarchs -- Slate, 29 January 2014
Tracking the causes of monarch butterfly decline-- The Guardian, 18 April 2013