[Pollinator] NY Times op-ed on butterfly releases

[Matthew Shepherd (Xerces Society)]

NY Times op-ed

Butterfly Kiss-Off 
Jeffery Lockwood
8/24/06

AS schools reopen, teachers around the country are planning a child-pleasing science activity: raising butterflies. Butterfly kits let teachers demonstrate a basic biological phenomenon as caterpillars transform themselves into painted lady butterflies that can be freed to complete their lives in a nearby field. The students learn that metamorphosis is marvelous, insects are engaging and releasing living things is virtuous. Wonder, beauty and goodness — who could object?

Yet among entomologists and butterfly conservation groups, the painted lady, along with a handful of relatives, has provoked a controversy — a microcosm of contemporary conservation-versus-corporation conflicts. 

Butterflies are big business. Although nobody knows exactly how many have been commercially produced, extrapolating from one company’s figures suggests that the 45 or so butterfly farms in the United States ship out 11 million butterflies a year.

Full article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/opinion/24lockwood.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
Protecting wildlife through science-based advocacy, education, 
and conservation projects since 1971. To join the Society, make a 
contribution, or read about our work, please visit www.xerces.org.

Matthew Shepherd
Director, Pollinator Conservation Program
4828 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, OR 97215, USA
Tel: 503-232 6639 Fax: 503-233 6794
Email: mdshepherd at xerces.org 
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