I want to take a moment to sing heartfelt praises for some of those individuals I have seen taking heroic action over the past 8 months in the public health crisis that the California Department of Food and Agriculture has created with their aerial spraying of the Light Brown Apple Moth. These are the faces that appear again and again on the YouTube videos, the voices on the radio, the minds behind some of the most brilliant documents and articles created in the midst of our calamity. I know that not one of these men or women are giving of themselves so fully with any thought to public praise, but they deserve it, nonetheless.

Maxina Ventura of East Bay Pesticide Alert
Maxina has been working for pesticide reform since the 90s. She began to educate herself when her family began falling ill living in the polluted Sonoma County Wine Country. Maxina and her children lost their health and discovered multiple cancer clusters rooted in the neighborhoods that are sandwiched between the ag wasteland that has been created by alcohol growers. She was a leader in achieving protection for public health in the Glassy-winged Sharpshooter campaign and is now spending countless hours of her time attending and holding conferences, and making radio appearances regarding LBAM.

Maxina’s proposals for pesticide reform are the most thorough, sound and far-reaching you will encounter anywhere in this crisis. Zero tolerance for pesticide exposure is the platform she is urging people to support. It’s not just the aerial spraying. It’s the traps, the twist ties, the permethrin-coated trees and telephone poles that will poison us and our dear ones. No other person I have spoken to in this situation has a better hands-on education about the true risks of pesticide poisoning, its short and long-term health effects.

Mayor Robert Lieber of Albany
You can ask my husband - when I first read Mayor Lieber’s forthright public letter confronting the truth of the abuse of the people of California and calling for the immediate resignation of Ag. Sec. A.G. Kawamura if the spraying wasn’t halted - I stood up and shouted for joy!

What is it that keeps so many civic leaders silent? Fear of professional punishment…they’ll be snubbed at the next gala dinner, out of the running for a posh new position, maybe fired. That is why we must praise our public servants when they go with their ethics in opposition to the corruption which is so baldly evident now in our state. I have had the pleasure of hearing Mayor Lieber speak several times now, and his insistence that the health of his town is worth more than trade profits is like a breath of fresh air in the rotten environment of California politics.

Michael Lynberg and HOPE
Thanks to Michael, we have the documents of the hundreds of reported pesticide-induced illnesses from 2007 in the Monterey/Santa Cruz region. Good Samaritin ethics have since impelled Mike not only to speak at conferences and hearings, but really, to become one of the most eloquent and humane voices in this whole fiasco. When Michael says our health is important, it astonishes me that ‘officials’ don’t just automatically agree with the obvious reason of his statement.

Like so many of the good people who have stepped forward in this crisis, Michal’s family was sickened by the spray - a major violation of his family’s right to safety. The actions of CDFA are further infringing on Michael’s private life by calling him away from his already-busy schedule as a writer in Silicon Valley in order to make public and radio appearances and do interviews. He doesn’t have any more free time than the rest of us do, and he is making this sacrifice of his private time and life in order to keep working to protect all of us. It is a pleasure to listen to him whenever he speaks.

Nan Wishner, Chairperson of the Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force
When I hear Ms. Wishner speak, it’s a relief to my soul - listening to her voice of reason. I first experienced this sensation when I watched her tell a packed-house in Marin that we could not trust the Ag. Department this time around. Her concern for short and long-term human health is so evident and she does such a good job of narrowing information down to the essential snippets that stick in people’s minds - that’s a talent! She has been at so many of the meetings and, like the others on my list, is making a praiseworthy sacrifice of her private time in order to defend public health.

John Russo of Stop The Spray
We may all think of him as that man in the hat but John Russo is striking us as a super-powered individual. He has made so many personal appearances at civic and governmental meetings, you’d begin to suspect he’s learned how to be in two places at once! StoptheSpray.org is responsible for the petition to stop the spray which I expect to see reaching 20,000 signatures soon. John’s energy and dedication to defending our health are incredibly meritorious. He has been through the horrors of the 2007 spraying, and if there is any justice left in the world, the organizational and feet-on-the-street work that John and his friends at StoptheSpray.org are so tirelessly undertaking will prevent the people of the Central Coast region from being poisoned again.

Roy Upton
Roy Upton’s journey on the LBAM path began when he discovered more than a score of dead Cormorants the day after the first 2007 spraying. An herbalist by trade, Roy has gone on to create crucial documents such as this one on the health damages caused by permethrin. You can hear Roy’s heartfelt concern about the poisoning of wildlife and water when he speaks, and like the others on this list, he is giving freely of his time to attend meetings, speak on the radio and give interviews. Roy is a concerned citizen, just like you and me, and the care and grounded reasoning he brings into this situation are so vital.

Dr. Daniel Harder
UCSC Arboretum director and botanist, Daniel Harder, has given a kind of credibility to our protest against this violation of human rights that we could only receive from a scientist. When Dr. Harder insists, point blank, that the moth is not a problem and that the eradication efforts are doomed to fail, you are hearing his years of professional study behind every syllable. As Dr. Harder has mentioned on the radio and in several of the numerous legal and civic meetings he has attended, the majority of his colleagues agree that the ‘voracious moth’ is a complete myth, but as he says, these men are afraid to speak up. Doubtless, fear of professional punishment is making them choose personal comfort over public safety, and this is all the more reason why Dr. Harder’s brave and informed stance is so commendable. I also want to praise Jeff Rosendale for his work in New Zealand which made it possible for us to ascertain that this moth is a negligible insect.

Senator Carol Migden
So far as I understand, it is only Sen. Migden’s measure requesting a moratorium on the aerial spraying that has the potential to be acted upon quickly enough to protect the public before the bombardment begins this summer. The senator has a long history of standing up for environmental protection, and I want to praise her for attempting to defend us from the government and its agencies. These are dark days in which to be a politician.

Many, many more individuals belong on our list. The city council members, representatives and senators who have asked the tough questions, trying to pin down the slippery A.G. Kawamura and his cohorts. The members of CASSonline.org and LBAMspray.com who are working so tirelessly in this effort. The doctors and nurses who have stepped forward to declare that the actions of the government threaten public health. And all of the un-named individuals who are devoting hours every day to educating their communities about the jeopardy in which we are all being held.

I know that, like me, every one of you has a job, daily duties, a family to care for, so much of the business of life that demands your time and attention every day. But as I have heard from countless people now, understanding what the spraying will do to us and our home has a way of taking precedence in the lives of people who are frankly, already very busy. We want to win this fight against corruption and abuse. We all want to get back to the day when we feel reasonably confident that we can take a walk tomorrow, drink our cup of tea, prepare food for our dear ones, make plans for our futures without this terrifying threat of chemical assault being held over our heads by CDFA.

If you want to see this day come, if you want to find a road back to reasonable peace but you have yet to make your voice heard in this crisis, please, join us. It isn’t enough to let others protect you. You need to start acting today to protect your own life. You have talents and I believe you will find the time, somehow, to demand a halt to the spraying now so that there is a more hopeful tomorrow for all of us.

Know Someone Who Should Be On This List? Please Feel Free To Mention Them In the Comments

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