Charlie, I understand that some species continue to eke out a living in ag
areas.

But please be realistic.  If one were to survey 1000 acres of virgin
biologically productive land anywhere on Earth, there would be hundreds or
thousands of species of plants and animals of all sorts living on that
thousand acres, each adapted to specific niches (for example, many insect
species are adapted to feed on only one or two host plants).

If one plows that 1000 acres and replaces it with RR corn or soy, there
would then be only a single species of plant growing on that 1000 acres.
Although the 1000 acres of land would still be there, the REQUIRED HABITAT
of most of formerly-existing species would have been eliminated.  For
example, without milkweed, there would be no monarchs.  Without
nectar-producing plants, bees could not survive in a corn field.  The
annual tilling would destroy the habitat of any ground nesters.

This above are inarguable FACTS. It would be specious to argue otherwise.
Human habitat conversion worldwide is eliminating the required habitat for
many species.  Some species, such as honey bees, are adapted to take
advantage of human monocultures, since they can store the bounty of a brief
bloom, and forage over great distances the rest of the season.  Many other
species are able to do so.

If this has not yet sunk in, take a look at the Southeast Asian rainforests
that are being replaced by palm oil plantations.  In areas in which perhaps
50 species of different trees used to exist per acre, there are now only
one.  I doubt that anyone would argue that organutans or many other less
charismatic species are not having their habitat eliminated.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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