{"id":9943,"date":"2018-11-01T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=9943"},"modified":"2025-06-10T16:49:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T20:49:40","slug":"monarch-butterfly-prairie-biogas-smithfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2018\/11\/01\/monarch-butterfly-prairie-biogas-smithfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Monarch butterflies are migrating in large numbers, with support from some unlikely allies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Monarch butterflies fueled on recently planted prairie habitat on hog farms in Missouri this summer before beginning their annual fall migration south.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You may have noticed more monarch butterflies than usual this year. There\u2019s a reason for that.<\/p>\n

Researchers are finding<\/a> that monarch populations are at the fourth highest level since 1993 \u2013 making this year\u2019s population currently migrating south for the winter one of the highest of the past 25 years.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s great news for the beloved orange and black butterfly, which has faced a 95 percent population decline since the 1980s. This dramatic loss has been driven largely by increased applications of herbicides across the agricultural landscape, and additional threats posed by extreme weather and climate change.<\/p>\n

But citizens, conservationists and even some forward-thinking companies are highly motivated to help recover the monarch before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Three uncommon allies with an ambitious goal<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most innovative recovery efforts is underway in an unlikely place: on hog farms in Missouri. That\u2019s where Smithfield Foods has partnered with the Environmental Defense Fund and Roeslein Alternative Energy to see if restoring the monarch\u2019s vital prairie habitat could be used to generate a new revenue stream from renewable energy production of prairie biogas.<\/p>\n