lbam spray stopped

Dear Valued Readers,
If your shoulders are feeling strangely lighter on this historic evening in the state of California, it is because an imminent sentence of disease and death via aerial spraying has just been lifted from millions of us.

Take a seat and read this news!

I am not ashamed to say that my husband and I fell to our knees and thanked our Creator when the press release was finally issued. In this long, weary and psychologically devastating battle, we have achieved one small victory for the rights of humankind today. The State has heard the message that they will not be allowed to aerially spray pesticides over urban areas. I want to take a moment to shout my joy and celebrate with you over this momentous turning point in our struggle.

Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Our efforts are making a difference. Our voices are not soundless. All of us are seeing that we are not powerless to protect our families from harm! We are not fighting without hope.

But, we are still fighting.

Now is not the moment to rest.

There is so much work for us to do.

The Work Ahead
My first questions after reading the news are these:

1) What constitutes an urban area and what constitutes agricultural/undeveloped land? Are the rural outskirts of a town classified as undeveloped? How many people have to live in a region for it to be classified as developed? This is going to become the most important question now.

2) Rep. Sam Farr went into and came out of his meetings with the Ag people calling the light brown apple moth a ‘threat’. We have got to work on getting this moth reclassified. We know it isn’t a threat. How can we make reclassification happen?

3) Twist ties, permethrin sludge on telephone poles and other ground based methods are extremely toxic and dangerous to us, wildlife, water, air, soil. These are unacceptable poisons. We refuse to be exposed to any of them. How will we now begin the fight against all of the CDFA’s ‘alternative’ toxic measures?

The long fight here is going to be over the classification of urban vs. undeveloped. Now that CDFA is saying they will only spray Ag. Lands, that looks to me like everyone in Sonoma County may be sprayed because of the monstrous alcohol industry here. Will Sonoma, rural Marin, rural Santa Cruz and rural Monterey now be aerially sprayed just as their urban neighbors are let off the hook?

We must not allow this to happen! No aerial spraying, no twist ties, no pesticides, chemicals or poisons are acceptable to us. The fight is far from over, and we need to recognize our new-found power and harness it to continue to fight these misguided and criminally dangerous agencies which continue to place zero importance on human and environmental health. We must keep fighting.

Today is a banner day for California. We have shown the strength of our arm, as an ancient prayer says. We must now use this strength to begin the real change California is desperately crying out for: the steady march away from the imperiling and deadly practices of conventional agriculture toward a just and healthy future for our people.