We’ve been keeping track of Ag. Secretary A.G. Kawamura’s mounting total of lies to the public. Here’s his latest intentionally deceptive statement:

“I urge all Bay Area families to remember this eradication is based on the best science; a decade of worldwide aerial pheromone applications shows no indication of human health threats and I assure them that a product for aerial treatment in 2008 will not be chosen until it is proven safe to people, pets and the environment. I also encourage everyone rely on scientifically proven research and ignore false information that causes an alarming amount of unwarranted fear.”

To take it apart:

1) It’s not an eradication. Former CDFA and USDA workers have stepped forward to state that use of pheromones is a control measure, not an eradication measure.

2) The pesticide/pheromone compound Checkmate has absolutely not been in use for 10 years over urban populations nor has any new formula they intend to test on the people of California.

3) Following the aerial spraying in 2007, the government, in fact, received 643 reports from sickened families. Subsequent reports have been issued documenting the deaths of birds, bees, fish, cats, dogs and rabbits. CDFA has abundant evidence at their disposal now proving that their product is toxic and deadly to humans and animals.

Yet, he keeps lying, and insulting the intelligence of Californians by urging us to believe in him – a lawbreaker who was convicted by the Superior Court of violating CEQA – rather than believing the expert testimony of disinterested parties including scientists, doctors and statisticians. A.G. Kawamura urges us all to rely on scientific research, while CDFA turns a blind eye to all of the scientists who are reporting the harm of this spraying.

A.G. Kawamura is saying that major media like CBS 5 is very foolish for documenting the harm that has been done on the Central Coast and demonstrating how 7 million people will be harmed if the spraying resumes this year. CBS, alone, has caught Kawamura lying on film half a dozen times, to my recollection.

A.G. Kawamura also patronizes the intelligence of hundreds of informed parents who are on the move, marching, demanding that their children not be subjected to deadly pesticides and PM10 pollution.

All these silly people, spreading misinformation across the web, across the state, just aren’t as smart as A.G., apparently. I don’t know that I’ve ever encountered a more arrogant person than this lawless, deceitful secretary.

“USDA’s Credibility Is At Stake,” proclaims California Farmer editor, Len Richardson, shedding light on the fact that while CDFA is lying to us, they are blackmailing the farmers who grow our food. From this must-read article:

California is under the same USDA quarantine list (read: blackmail) as other countries. Go along with it, or you can’t export — no matter that USDA will spend another $75 million (for spraying) that could be better spent elsewhere, and spraying has already made people sick.

Who, in their right mind, would trust an agency that creates an illegal emergency to gain millions in federal funding, puts unwarranted quarantines on organic farmers, promulgates the ludicrous concept that inhaling pesticide is fine for people and then looks the other way when the reports of irreparable damage start flooding in from all sides? I would take editor Len Richardson’s statement one step further. CDFA and USDA’s names are mud now in California. I can think of no other agencies so deeply mistrusted, criticized and despised here. Everyone I know has now had it up-to-here with the deceit and the patronizing urgings that we ‘trust’ these failed agencies.

“I encourage you to keep the pressure on,” says state senate candidate, Joe Nation. “This is the beginning of the end of pesticide use in California.”

Vegan Reader supports this goal, and we hope it is also the beginning of the end of A.G. Kawamura’s shameful career as a ‘public servant’.