Suterra Plotting To Buy 1500 Acres In Bend, Oregon
Saturday 26 Jul 2008 | LBAM Spray Bay Area
I was alerted by an acquaintance to an article published in an Oregon newspaper, The Bulletin, regarding Suterra’s potential plan to purchase 1500 acres of land in Bend, Oregon to build their new pesticide factory. I’m sorry I can’t link readers to the actual article - apparently you have to have a paid subscription to access it, but here is something I know my readers will wish to understand.
A Suterra representative is quoted as follows in the news article:
“Pheremone based pesticides don’t contaminate ground water or affect other animals or kill crop damaging insects”.
This will come as news to everyone in Santa Cruz and Monterey County who saw their watershed poisoned, their wildlife and pets killed and lost their health after being exposed to aerial applications of Suterra’s pheromone-pesticide, Checkmate, in 2007.
It is simply outrageous that Suterra is making statements like this, and a terrible mistake on the part of The Bulletin for printing this lie, the intent of which on the part of Suterra is clearly to deceive the public into believing Suterra’s presence in the community will not lead to the poisoning of residents, their habitat and their water.
Here in California, we know what Suterra’s products do to us, our wildlife, our domestic animals and our environment, and it is because of this that I am urging you to write to this newspaper and urge them to print a correction. The people of Bend need the true facts. If they are to protect themselves, they need to be up in arms and not permit this corrupt and incredibly dangerous corporation to take root in their innocent town. Just think of the health damage that may be done to them if Suterra is not stopped from turning Bend into their own private pesticide lab.
Please, if you have been physically or psychologically abused by Suterra in connection with the LBAM spray public health crisis, take just a few minutes to write to the author of the article and the newspaper’s editor to share what you know about Suterra and their ’safe’ pesticides.
Peter Sachs
psachs@bendbulletin.com
Tim Doran
tdoran@bendbulletin.com
Urge these men to do their duty as members of the press by printing true, unbiased facts…not simply republishing the marketing pitches of special interest groups. Printing these kinds of statements endangers public health.
Here is my letter to these 2 gentlemen:
Welcoming Suterra To Your Community?
Dear Sirs,
I was extremely concerned when a friend in your community forwarded me an article printed in your paper regarding pesticide manufacturer Suterra’s attempted acquisition of 1500 acres of land in Bend, Oregon.
Of greatest concern to me was the quote you printed from Suterra claiming that pheromone pesticides do not contaminate ground water or pose a health risk to people and wildlife.
Unfortunately, California’s experience with the pheromone-pesticide Checkmate, manufactured by Suterra, has proven just the opposite. Following the aerial spraying of Checkmate on Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties in the autumn of 2007, the following damages were done:
1) The watershed was horrifically fouled with a yellow, foaming substance. This included the coastline, rivers and lakes.
2) More than 600 seabirds, including endangered species, washed up dead on the beaches.
3) Songbirds disappeared from gardens for weeks following the spray. In some areas, they have still not returned after nearly a year from the spraying.
4) Pets including cats, dogs and rabbits died. Fish in landscaping ponds died.
5) Beekeepers reported massive confusion and dieoff in their hives.
6) More than 600 families filled out illness reports after being sprayed. Complaints included respiratory complaints, irritation of eyes and skin, vomiting, diarrhea and the recommencement of menstruation in menopausal women over the age of 65. Upon citizen investigation, it was discovered that each of these symptoms were linked with known effects of the ingredients in Suterra’s Checkmate.
7) 2 formerly-healthy small children were hospitalized and nearly died of respiratory and heart failure after being sprayed with Checkmate. Both children now have chronic asthma and are being kept breathing with medication.
I am listing these basics of exposure to Suterra’s products so that you will understand that they are not, in fact safe, and that the people of Bend, Oregon will be in very real danger if Suterra is allowed to build their pesticide factory in the community.
The fact of the matter is, no studies have ever been done on the chronic (long-term) effects of Suterra’s products on human beings, wildlife, water or habitat. These pesticides were initially used on fruits and vegetables. Now, in California, they are spraying them on human beings with disastrous effects of the kind I have just described above. This is being done without any testing for chronic effects, so it is false to state that pheromone-pesticides are safe. In the absence of proof, that statement is a lie.
In closing, I would like to add that ‘Biotech’ is a marketing euphemism created to replace the term ‘Genetic Modification’ because the public reacted negatively to the idea of being exposed to genetically modified substances. It is up to the people of Bend, Oregon whether the want to allow GMO/pesticide manufacturers to infiltrate their community. My letter is written to you in hopes that you will present them with the true facts regarding Suterra and their products so that your community can make an informed choice.
Thank you for reading my letter.
Sincerely,
& etc.
Saturday 26 Jul 2008 | admin | LBAM Spray Bay Area |
thank you for writing and explaining the truth. its a shame hat people like this nab the press and tell them untrue things to promote their unsavory ativities.
and, i wonder why they ae planning to occupy so much space in bend, oregon.
i will write also,but wish i was aware of more places in oregon to write. maybe the governors office, but perhaps that person will prove to be like arnold.
Hi Solstice,
I’ve yet to hear back from The Bulletin’s editors. I’m really hoping I will and that they will, at the very least, write a follow-up piece featuring the truth about Suterra.
1500 acres is a huge piece of land, I agree. Perhaps they intend to use open land to test their products on? A horrifying thought.
It’s so nice to see you here and I’m glad to know that you are writing to the newspaper.
Mim
1. There isn’t enough documentable proof behind the symptoms that arose after the aerial spraying to publish them as fact in a journalistic paper. And aluding to them for the point of persuading the public to kick out Suterra is unethical.
2. If you’ve ever been to Bend, you would know that it’s not just a little town of rednecks. It’s a vary diverse and evergrowing community with MANY environmentalists like yourself that would dissaprove of this company moving in without their sketchy background.
The idea of posting a press release on your webpage is to inform the public of what’s happening. The Bend Bulletin, which I read on a very regular occassion, is an incredibly ethical and well documented local publication. They don’t write slam stories based on a few rumors of what happened in another state, so they post what they have and they let the public do the research. People like you help inform the public of what happened in California, and then they will take your information and the information from Suterra and the state departments who defend them and decide for themselves what should be done about it.
Welcome Christopher,
I appreciate you taking the time to comment, but call into question your statement that the reason The Bend Bulletin wouldn’t print a ’slam story based on rumors’ is because they are ethical about providing well-documented information.
The Bend Bulletin was perfectly willing to print Suterra’s party line about the harmlessness of their chemicals. This is not only un-documented but egregiously false and the fact that the newspaper was willing to print this utterly false claim of Suterra’s can only result in your community being misled about a matter as serious as their health and their lives.
Having watched hundreds of Californians fall ill after being exposed to Suterra’s products, I felt it was my duty to let the Bulletin know about what happened here. We don’t want this to happen in Oregon. But, I’m sorry to say that the editors did not even have the courtesy to respond to my email.
All across this country, the major Genetic Engineering corporations are using the press as their vehicle for delivering totally false marketing messages to the public, and unless journalists have the smarts to see past this, they are being used as little more than marketers for Big Ag, pesticide manufacturers and GMO labs. The tactics these completely odious corporations use to deceive the public are merciless, and if newspapers like The Bend Bulletin don’t defend themselves from being used by these corporations, they are doing their communities a major disservice.
In this battle of public welfare vs. corporate profits, I think Bend has a stand to take, if anyone will be brave enough to let them know what is really at stake.
Thank you again for commenting.
Miriam
Re: “The Bend Bulletin, which I read on a very regular occassion, is an incredibly ethical and well documented local publication.”
As a resident of Bend and a subscriber to the BULL, I find that statement hilarious. The BULL is so conservative and pro-development it managed to spend to full columns endorsing McCain for President without ever using the word “Palin”.
Our fine City Council once again went behind closed doors and discussed selling land at Juniper Ridge last night. They emerged to quickly vote on the sale and funding of eight acres at Juniper Ridge in short order. Ground has already been broken. More at http://www.juniper-ridge-info.blogspot.com and further discussion in general (especially in the comments) at http://www.bendbubble2.blogspot.com
A couple of facts to straighten out: 1)Suterra only bought eight acres, not 1500. The 1500 acre figure is for the entire Juniper Ridge development. 2) Suterra is not creating that many new jobs, only five to ten per year. It is moving its current 50 or so employees out of their facility on the West side of Bend north to Juniper Ridge, leaving an empty building in an area where roughly 200,000 square feet of commercial property is currently vacant. Suterra’s jobs are better paying than most of the service jobs here in Bend.
Interesting stuff about the Checkmate spraying in California. We haven’t heard anything about that.
Suterra’s plans all along were to buy 8-10 acres of land. The company is already located in Bend where it employs 55 people. There have been no known reports of contamination — nor health problems in Bend residents — as a result of the manufacturer’s presence. Our original article on July 23 to which you refer clearly stated,
The sixth paragraph of a subsequent article, on Aug. 3, stated,
Interesting article and you certainly raise some issues that do deserve to be more fully researched. However, there is at least one glaring error in what you have written - Suterra did not, and never inteded to, purchase 1,500 acres in Bend. The actual figure is only 8 acres. I will look into your claims about health concerns as I was not aware of that.
Dear Bruce Ewert, Peter and Bruce,
Thank you for giving us a firm number of 8 acres. 1500 was the number reported to me originally with the original news of this.
8 acres is bad enough.
We are terribly sorry you’ve got Suterra there with you in Bend, and that your city fathers/council members have done nothing to prevent this.
Please, Bruce, do look here and elsewhere for information about the Suterra chemicals that were sprayed on Santa Cruz and Monterrey families in 2007. People were horrifically sickened and then dismissed by government agencies. We are never going to forget this, and it was because of this terrible action that I wrote about Suterra’s Bend land purchase in the first place.
I appreciate your comments.
The better informed Bend citizens can be, perhaps the less certain Suterra will be of their welcome in your town.