Vegan Reader celebrates with the people of Santa Cruz their courtroom victory over CDFA!!!!

We have been so grieved by the illness and harm your families have suffered.

Even if the victory is only a temporary one, even though we now must contend with the potential for corruption of the EIR report, justice has triumphed here and we praise the judge, the lawyer and the people of Santa Cruz for ensuring that truth won the day!

We sincerely hope that the Monterey/HOPE lawsuit on May 8th and the pending Bay Area lawsuits will fare as well.

Within hours of the ruling, all of California experienced a second victory in Gov. Schwarzenegger’s statement that testing must be conducted before spraying resumes.

And now, we must begin to agitate for third party review being part of the testing process. We need a panel of our UC scientists, impartial doctors, statisticians and specialists to be part of the EIR. Leaving it in the hands of CDFA and OEHHA is likely to result in corrupt and self-interested findings. Let me show you a problem:

“I am confident that the additional tests will reassure Californians that we are taking the safest, most progressive approach to ridding our state of this very real threat to our agriculture, environment and economy,” Schwarzenegger said.

Gov. Schwarzenegger is not supposed to be confident that tests will prove the safety of the spray. That is biased language. The purpose of scientific testing is to prove whatever the truth is, not to confirm a bias, prejudice or pre-conceived belief that something is safe. Until the results are in, a true scientist makes no claim as to what the results will be, lest he skew the results in favor of his own opinion rather than leaving everything open to an impartial, concrete finding.

Millions - likely billions - of dollars in funding are riding on the EIR ‘proving’ that pesticide and PM10 is ’safe’. Because of this, it is imperative that the testing be done by professionals who do not stand to receive any money from the spraying. Without this safeguard, we have learned to expect corruption that rules in favor of money rather than public health.

So, that’s our next move, as I see it. We need to get honorable people involved in the testing process.

But, let’s all take a moment first to rejoice, to pray, to give thanks for this brief reprieve and this hopeful sign that truth can still triumph in the face of tremendous adversity. HOORAY for Santa Cruz today! HOORAY for California!!!

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