The Real Facts About Apple Moth
Spraying
Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM)
Aerial Pesticide Spraying of the
Bay Area Relies on Blatant Misrepresentations
ROBERT LIEBER / Commentary /
Berkeley Daily Planet 7mar2008
|
A. G.
Kawamura, CDFA Secretary
Governor
Schwarzenegger appointed A.G. Kawamura as secretary of the California
Department of Food and Agriculture in November 2003. Secretary Kawamura is
a produce grower and shipper from Orange County, where his family grows
strawberries, green beans and other specialty crops. Secretary
Kawamura has a long history of public service to his community and to
agriculture. At the time of his appointment, he was a member of the
California State Board of Food and Agriculture, where he had served since
1998. He is the immediate past chairman of the Agricultural Technical
Advisory Committee, a USDA advisory position for international trade. He
also held board positions with CDFA's Western Institute for Food Safety
and Security, a partnership with U.C. Davis, and with the California
Institute for Specialty Crops, a partnership with Cal Poly San Luis
Obispo. In addition,
Secretary Kawamura has served as president of the Orange County Farm
Bureau, chairman of Western Growers Association, and president of the
Orange County Agricultural Association. He has also served as a director
on the boards of the California Strawberry Commission and the California
Celery Research Advisory Board. He was a founding trustee of Sage Hill
High School in Orange County. Secretary
Kawamura is widely known for his passion for education and for his
commitment to the issues of hunger and nutrition. As president of Orange
County Harvest, a non-profit promoting agricultural partnerships with
organizations combating hunger, he arranged for thousands of volunteers to
harvest and glean over a million pounds of produce for area food banks.
His nationally recognized urban projects, such as the 7-acre Common Ground
project in San Juan Capistrano and 4-acre Incredible Edible Park in
Irvine, are agricultural paradigms linking nutritional education and
interaction with local schools and food banks. Secretary
Kawamura has a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from U.C.
Berkeley.
source:
CDFA website 10mar2008
Mindfully.org
note:
It's too bad about
Kawamura's lies. But you have to understand that this is the only way
people will accept pesticides. The State of California will not allow the
truth to be spoken by an official of the CDFA. That would hurt the
corporate funding of our government.
To know why pesticides are bad, please read: "What
Are Endocrine Disruptors?"
by Paul Goettlich. |
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary Kawamura’s
recent dog and pony show that he has been trotting out before many city councils
and commissions promoting the light brown apple moth (LBAM) aerial pesticide
spraying of the Bay Area relies on blatant misrepresentations of the truth,
fear-mongering and outright lies. The spray program he defends imperils
California’s families, children, pets, and the environment, based on no real
science and no solid facts.
The real facts are simple. CDFA sprayed Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, and
at least 643 people got sick. They reported their illnesses although the State
made no infrastructure available. The state only accepted health complaints
signed by a physician, but physicians were not trained to assess the toxic
exposure associated with the spray. Anyone without insurance or access to a
physician could not “officially” report health problems. Secretary Kawamura’s
assertion that there were no adverse reactions to the spray is an outrageous
bureaucratic determination, not a true health assessment.
And that is only the beginning of the secretary’s swift-boating. He has the
audacity to imply wide support for the spraying from environmental
organizations. In fact, the Sierra Club is on record, along with 25 other health
and environmental groups, opposing the aerial spraying.
Make no mistake about it, the chemical used last year, Checkmate, is a
pesticide despite Secretary Kawamura’s white-washing talk of harmless
pheromones.
The facts: Checkmate is made up of three components that have either
not been tested or are known to be dangerous:
1) The synthetic moth pheromone: not tested for
long-term human exposure risk. The State’s own health Consensus Document
includes a disclaimer that it is based on studies that assume the pesticide
will be sprayed over unpopulated agricultural areas.
2) The so-called inert ingredients (not inert
meaning inactive; “inert” only means they do not target the pest):
carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive effectors, liver toxins, skin irritants,
and unsafe to inhale.
3) The microscopic plastic capsules in which the
pesticide is sprayed, which time-release over 30 days: Inhalation risk is
unknown, but UC Davis scientists found some particles are small enough to be
inhaled into the deep lung where they cannot be expelled. It doesn’t take
a scientist to know that can’t be good.
Secretary Kawamura focuses only on the LBAM aerial spraying, ignoring the
program’s other toxic and questionable practices, including requiring
wholesale nurseries to use the organophosphate pesticide chlorpyrifos, employing
state personnel to install traps and use pesticides in private yards that are
toxic, especially to cats, honeybees, and the beneficial predators that
naturally keep pests in the environment—including LBAM—in check.
Secretary Kawamura’s fear-mongering comments that, if left unchecked, LBAM
will destroy every green plant in the state and possibly the country is
contradicted by facts: Even CDFA says there has been no crop damage attributable
to LBAM in California. Professional biologists testify that LBAM is a minor pest
in New Zealand where it is also an introduced exotic species. New Zealand’s
biggest LBAM problems are from a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
quarantine, not from actual damage. In addition, entomologists agree that LBAM
has likely been in California for 10 years, so if there was going to be crop
damage, wouldn’t we have seen it by now?
So now we come to the Big Lie about the “pest that was never a pest.”
Decades ago, LBAM made it onto a USDA list of supposedly voracious invasive
species. To date, I have been unable to find this original designation. The main
goal was, I believe, to protect powerful U.S. agriculture interests from
competition from crops from New Zealand and similar areas. As a result, today we
have the “Light Brown Apple Moth Emergency.”
Secretary Kawamura expresses concern that other states and countries might
ban California produce because of LBAM— even though those countries’
quarantine restrictions were adopted to mimic the United States’. Note that
Europe does not quarantine for LBAM.
So the plot sickens. It’s all about money. Big money. Rather than admit
that LBAM is not the threat that’s been claimed and request that LBAM’s USDA
classification be revised based on up-to-date science, Secretary Kawamura is
willing to poison us and our environment. And to spend $500,000 on a public
relations firm to help “sell” this charade to us.
I am ashamed of Secretary Kawamura’s disgraceful public deception campaign
to sell a hopeless, dangerous and likely unneeded “eradication” program to
the people. He should immediately call an end to the plans to give us time to
make rational decisions based on sustainable, integrated pest management
principles. Short of calling off the spray and undertaking sound pest
management, he should resign.
Robert Lieber is a registered nurse and the mayor of Albany.
Join him in Sacramento Monday, March 10 for an 11 a.m. press conference
opposing the spray on the Capitol steps with Senator Carole Migden and
afternoon visits to educate legislators about the dangers of aerial
spraying. www.PesticideWatch.org.
source:
10mar2008