Clear Moral Choice for Central Valley Farmers
Thursday 29 May 2008 | LBAM Spray Bay Area
So threatened is the California Department of Agriculture by the 28 strong and still growing number of cities which have firmly resolved against the aerial spraying of the pesticide CheckMate on human beings that they have determined to send their employees into the Central Valley to squeeze pro-spray resolutions out of California farming communities.
Just days ago, CDFA closeted themselves with members of the City of Reedley, filled the farmers’ heads with lies, doubtless threatened them with costly quarantines, and managed to extract from them a document which actually supports enforced spraying of infants, children, men and women with deadly biochemicals.
CheckMate has already sickened hundreds of families on the coast. It has killed hundreds of wild birds, including endangered species. It caused the near-death of an infant who was rushed to the hospital with respiratory failure after he inhaled the carcinogenic, mutagenic particulate pollution of which the spray is compounded. How do I know this is true? Many of the sickened people are frequent readers of this blog. They are telling the truth about the severe and, in many cases, lasting damage caused to their health by the aerial spraying of pesticides over their cities.
As the above graphic illustrates, any Central Valley farmer who supports a resolution to spray his neighbors on the coast is supporting an aerial attack on living human beings. This is a moral choice farmers and their cities will be faced with when CDFA’s henchmen come to town.
CDFA will tell the same lies to farmers that they have told to people throughout the Monterey Bay region and the San Francisco Bay Area: that CheckMate is harmless, that the light brown apple moth will devastate agriculture. CheckMate has caused disastrous human illness, but the light brown apple moth has done zero damage to agriculture despite having lived here anywhere from as long as ten to fifty years. It does minimal cosmetic damage to leaves. It will not destroy food, and CDFA is harming farmers by placing them under quarantines that are completely unsupported by the findings of modern science. The light brown apple moth needs to be declassified to reflect its negligible status in the State of California.
CDFA will go from town to town, deceiving and frightening farmers. Farmers will be pressured to sign resolutions supporting the aerial spraying - not of their own communities - but of neighboring communities on the Central Coast where the LBAM lives. Indeed, it is unlikely that the LBAM would ever even make it to the Central Valley because it requires a cool, moist climate to live in. CDFA will bully and pressure farmers into passing resolutions that support an act of potential genocide on their neighbors.
Our doctors and independent scientists have stepped forward one by one to explain that chronic exposure to the spray compound will result in human deaths.
Already, the name of the City of Reedley has become an infamous one up and down the California coast for choosing to support this deadly attack on their neighbors. They were lied to by CDFA’s agents in a closed-door meeting, and walked out of that meeting supporting CDFA’s value system which decrees that profits are of greater value than human life. We are still hoping that Reedley will get fighting mad over having been lied to and rewrite their ill-advised resolution which is the only one in the whole state supporting this violation of human rights.
Whether or not the moth represents a threat to crops is not the issue here. The real issue here is the utter evil of subjecting human beings to forced inhalation of deadly biochemicals. There is no nice way to put this. And there is no way for farmers, in good conscience, to resolve that their profits are of more importance than the right of human beings not to be subjected to biochemical assault without consent.
CDFA is violating over 30 laws and globally upheld human rights standards by performing this horrific experiment on the families of the Central Coast. Central Coast families would never support any agency doing this horrific thing to Central Valley families.
Farmers must educate themselves and understand that they are about to be barraged with cunningly crafted threats and lies in the mouths of CDFA and USDA agents. Central Valley farmers must band together, as the people of the coast have done, to confront CDFA with a united stance of refusal to be made party to an aerial assault on innocent human beings.
Should farmers choose to support the spray, they will be condemning infants, mothers, elders, infirm people and other Californians to emergency hospital visits, grievous short term and chronic illness, and after repeat sprayings, death, according to our doctors. Let there be no prize, no profit that would ever induce a humane American to endorse such ruination of human lives.
Say no to CDFA’s unwarranted, barbaric plans. Get your community to resolve against LBAM spray.
—————————-
Vegan Reader has created the above graphic for creative commons use. If you would like to use or print the graphic, please visit our free graphics page.
Thursday 29 May 2008 | admin | LBAM Spray Bay Area |
James Carey, the Invasive Pest Biologist and a number of statisticians who have done distribution probability analyises say the moth has been here 30-50 years, at least.
No damage in 30-50 years. That is the emergency for the CDFA to spray. Because as they delay and people see there is still no damage, then no one will believe the “Moth of Mass Destruction” lie they spread. That is why they are in such a hurry to spray. CDFA will get $500 million over five years under their fake emergency. Without the fake emergency, just leaving the moth alone another 50 years, CDFA gets no $ for the moth. Individuals need to reach out to their friends in the central valley and get them this info.
I think you’re mischaracterizing the farming community in Reedley by suggesting that farmers support the CDFA’s LBAM spray program. Just because the Reedley city council rushed through the Resolution of support so that they could present it to Secretary Kawamura when he came to Reedley doesn’t mean it was supported by the farmers.
I attended the meeting. One farmer who researched the issue concluded that the LBAM was not a threat in the Central Valley. He asked the Secretary why he was in the Valley spreading fear among farmers. I talked to residents who expressed concern both about the spraying and the threat of local quarantines that would leave their crops rotting on the vine. They are open to a dialogue and as they learn more about the issue are just as likely as any of us to conclude that the spray program is a bad idea.
Let’s be careful about whom we demonize. I, for one, would like to make an ally of the farming community so that together we can stand up against this ill conceived, dangerous, and unnecessary program.
Hi John -
I agree, the money trail in this is blatant. I’m really furious to think of CDFA using farmers in this way, subjecting them to totally outrageous quarantines, threatening their livelihoods, when the moth does nothing to damage farming. CDFA is our common opponent.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Tom -
Nice to see you here. I’m really glad you’ve taken the time to share your thoughts on this. Did you get a chance to read the resolution? The majority of the language in it revolves around protecting the farmer’s job and the world’s fruit basket.
Are you saying that you feel Reedley’s City Council is intentionally NOT representing what farmers want?
This would be newsworthy, indeed, if this is the impression you got.
Mike DeLay did tell me about the one fellow at the meeting who asked, “why are you bringing fear into the valley?” Though I was very heartened (and saddened) by this one farmer asking this, my understanding of his meeting with the farmers was that they looked uncomfortable hearing about the illnesses and deaths caused by checkmate, but that the resolution has remained standing, as is.
I so hope you’ll come back and let me know if you feel that Reedley’s City Council went against the wishes of farmers in creating their horrible resolution.
Truly, when it comes down to it - in my eyes, at least - this is not a situation of farmers, city folks, coast folks, rural folks. I see this as a humanitarian issue in which it would be insane for any Californian to support an aerial assault on human beings, whether they live next door, in another state or another country.
But, CDFA is going after the farmers in the Central Valley now, and I urge each and every one of them to refuse to support such an assault on human beings.
I hope you can come add some more of your thoughts, Tom. I’m really interested!
Mim
Mim,
There no way that I know to determine what the city council’s motivation was for writing up that resolution. My sense is that someone on the city council championed the resolution as the result of a request - either implied or explicit - in anticipation of the Reedley presentation by the Ag Secretary. The request might have come via the CDFA, its public relations arm, or one of their supporters in big Ag. I very seriously doubt that farmers (and the height of crop picking season) would spend too much of their time trying to get a resolution passed to please the CDFA. In truth, I don’t get the sense that farmers are that fond of the CDFA given all the restrictions that the CDFA imposes on them. The only applause the Secretary got at that meeting came from a group of people sitting next to the mayor. So what I’m saying is that the resolution was a political statement by a city council intent on currying favor with the CDFA. And their suggestion that it is to protect the farmers seems like one of the few “Whereas” clauses they could come up with to justify it. For that, I don’t blame the farmers.
The CDFA has turned to the Central Valley to seek more support. We’re writing to the Governor, legislators, the media, and others to warn them that pitting farmers against their customers is not a good idea. And we’re considering putting on a forum in the Fresno area that will try to offset some of the misinformation that the CDFA is guilty of spreading. Planning for that type of event will take some time as we gather as much support as we can from the farming community.
For those reasons and because we are beginning to know and understand the people who grow the food we subsist on, we are unwilling characterize the farming community as a tool of the CDFA. Doing so will not advance our efforts, nor is it at all fair.
Hi Tom,
I really appreciate you coming back to share some more of your take on this.
Why would the Reedley City Council be so eager to curry favor with CDFA? That’s a really interesting question! And, it reminds me of the bizarre position of silence that has been taken by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in regards to the fouling of the bay. What went on behind the closed doors? Lack of transparency is really grievous in this situation.
Which group do you belong to, Tom? You mention ‘our efforts’ and I’d be interested to know which group you are working with to try to mobilize farmers against this potential abuse of their communities.
It’s a very difficult situation, especially where conventional farming, dependent upon pesticide as it is, is concerned. Pesticide is a part of daily life in the valley, and conventional farmers may be inured to its use in a way that would shock non-farmers. I’m hoping whichever group you belong to will at least be able to see eye to eye on the deadly nature of pesticides with any organic farmers in the Central Valley, and that, with the conventional farmers who engage in pesticide use, you will be able to talk about the inhumanity of supporting pesticide application on human beings against their will.
Hopefully, your group will be able to find some common ground with both groups of farmers.
I would add, I think using farmers as a tool is exactly what CDFA intends to do. They have already authored statements along the lines of “farmers support LBAM spray.” Wouldn’t you say their whole intention here is to get CV farmers to pick up the party line about the necessity of LBAM eradication to protect crops, and wouldn’t you say they are looking at farmers as their pawns, Tom?
I wish you luck in your group’s efforts, Tom, and hope you’ll let me know which of the spray groups you are working with.
Mim
i can’t copy pdf’s but here are some of the farm organizations that the cdfa lists as their allies on their site under “What Others Say”:
Tulare County Farm Bureau
Monterey County Farm Bureau
Fresno County Farm Bureau
Calif. Certified Organic Farmers (supposedly changed their minds re. aerial spraying)
Alliance for Food and Farming
California Citrus Mutual
Calif. Farm Bureau Federation
Santa Cruz Farm Bureau
Los Angeles County Farm Bureau
California Tomato Growers Association
Agricultural Council of California
Western Growers Association
Food sprayed with checkmate was allowed to be sold as organic but the consumers knew better. Then again, a lot of damage done to farms was not done by the moth but by the crazy cdfa people trampling local farms looking for ravenous moths.
Hi Donna -
Thank you for that list!
And, of course, Western Growers Association is A.G. Kawamura’s former stomping grounds, so not a surprise to see that on there.
CCOF should not be on that list if CDFA is still saying they support spraying. They did change their minds after further thought, thank goodness. And then Whole Foods came out saying that they support CCOF.
So long as food production remains chemically-dependent, we’ve got a big problem in California and the aerial Checkmate spray is only a part. The big difference, obviously, is that spraying of conventional crops happens on farms, and this is happening over cities. CDFA are such hopeless pesticide junkies that even doing this makes sense to them. Spray everything! It’s just crazy.
Thanks, Donna.
Mim
hi mim,
ccof supports ground treatments now. whole foods has been a flip-flopper too as well as the sierra club. cdfa would say, see; we are using organic farming techniques like you asked, we are so green and cutting-edge but like you said, not over cities!
we are not vegetables but we might be if you spray us for years. although for me it took about five minutes of exposure.
i just came across an article on a twist tie open house in sonoma on june 2. i guess twist ties are no longer on hold. i wanted to make sure you saw the info. just remember they are very safe!
donna
wanted to add about trying to make sure your food is checkmate-free, i hear the farmers were compassionate when asked questions at the local farmers markets but when asking at the new leaf stores people were treated poorly and rudely. we don’t have whole foods here yet, they will be invading in the spring as small community stores scramble to stay alive.
Donna -
I have no idea how I missed that about CCOF. I can’t believe it. I swear, the only safe thing is going to be to stop the spray and grow all of our own food, if even the organics groups have lost their marbles and are supporting pesticides. Totally disheartening!
Thank you for letting me know that.
Whole Foods, meanwhile, constantly mislabels their produce here (where it’s from). They’ll have big signs saying “Apples from Washingon”…then you look at the apples and they all have stickers saying they are from Chile. Lack of careful attendance to details in the produce department.
Several people in the Sonoma Region are circulating a document I authored about the toxic twist ties. I want to call the elementary school that is in the region and warn them of what is going on. Donna, do you have specific details for time/location of that Sonoma meeting? Thanks!
Mim
here is the link to the twist tie open house, june 2, in sonoma:
http://www.sonomanews.com/articles/2008/05/29/news/headlines/doc483f559354abc044275869.txt
i don’t see a date for actual application in this article or on the cdfa website yet. last we heard all twist ties were on hold, there were questions whether they were working or not. this if the first i’m hearing that they’re baaaaccckkkk….
another farming group that disappointed people is marin organics as they requested immediate ground treatment in order to avoid aerial spraying, especially because the area of marin to be treated is relatively small.
many others felt this way too until we got educated about the actual chemicals involved; some of this education was conducted by people who got very ill by ground treatments. a couple of people, one chemically sensitive, the other not, were sickened at the open house meetings when twist ties and sticky traps were taken out to be viewed. some were sealed, some considered old enough to be used up and not toxic anymore.
Hi Donna,
Thank you for the link. I managed to find the date. Unsurprisingly, this information has been made almost impossible to find!
Yes, I was really unhappy and disappointed about Marin Organics. I contacted them right away, urging them not to offer to poison themselves in some vague hope that this would placate CDFA. Unfortunately, CDFA wants the task of poisoning us all themselves.
I also heard about the illnesses that happened after that meeting. Just dreadful.
Mim