Dear Readers,
It gives me no pleasure to link to this article, published by Harry Cline of the Western Farm Press. It is riddled with inaccuracies and claims of safety which fly in the face of the recent OEHHA report findings that the pheromone-pesticide sprayed in 2007 on the Central Coast was, indeed, a health hazard. Little as I like to link to this, Californians should know what is continuing to be printed about CDFA’s experiment on their health without consent. I suggest you read the article, read my response and then write your own to the author.

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Dear Mr. Cline,
Several of my readers have forwarded to me your recent article, Phantom Menace, regarding the aerial spraying of pheromone-pesticides and subsequent damage to human health. Your article has failed to take into account the current findings of the OEHHA regarding the substances sprayed over Monterey and Santa Cruz families in 2007.

I would like to draw your attention to an SF Chronicle article summarizing the findings of the OEHHA toxicology testing, and their conclusion that the pheromone-pesticide sprayed was not only quite capable of causing the types of health effects reported, but also that the CDFA grossly underestimated the particulate matter count in the spray. The American Lung Association has explained that human exposure to the levels of PM10 in the 2007 spray increase the likelihood of disease and death. Here is the article, for your information:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/12/ED9R143AFM.DTL

OEHHA’s animal testing further found that the substance sprayed on Central Coast families causes white blood cells to multiply at a startling rate in the lymph nodes. And these were merely short-term tests - not reflective of the prolonged exposure to which Central Coast Families were subjected against their will.

Far from being the solution repeatedly touted as safe by the CDFA, the pheromone-pesticide has been found to be a health hazard, particularly to sensitive individuals (the young, the elderly, the immuno-compromised).

Your article has failed to mention that more than 70 Central Coast doctors filed pesticide illness reports following the 2007 spraying. Not smart enough to pour sand out of the heel of a boot? I’d like to hope that their diplomas stand for something in your eyes. OEHHA showed a similar disdain in their failure to directly contact even one of these doctors or their patients who filed reports prior to OEHHA making an initial announcement, before testing, of the safety of the spray. Now that they have done their acute testing, OEHHA has found that they were mistaken.

I have had no problem believing that people were genuinely stricken with mild, moderate and severe health problems as a result of CDFA’s experiment, because the victims began showing up on my blog, reporting their symptoms which ranged from women’s menstrual cycles being disrupted, to severe gastrointestinal distress to MS-like symptoms of brain fog and disorientation. Nor did I disbelieve the readers who came to report that their beaches were covered with dead sea birds, including the federally-protected Brown Pelican. Nor did I discredit reports from gardeners and longtime homeowners who reported in distress that songbirds, hummingbirds and bees had suddenly vanished from their gardens and feeders. I had no reason to doubt the sincerity of these citizens who turned to the Internet to try to find answers to the health and environmental phenomena they were experiencing.

Why do you doubt them, Mr. Cline? Would you also have doubted the first reports from soldiers claiming that Agent Orange had crippled their health, despite the manufacturer’s public claims of safety? How about DDT? Would you have been among those who acted to silence Rachel Carson, rather than risk the loss of pesticide industry profits?

At the end of the day, Mr. Cline, whether you believe or disbelieve that hundreds of California citizens have lied about the health damages done to their families as a result of exposure to pheromone-pesticides, I am hoping you can at least remember that you are an American citizen, and supposed to be a supporter of the Geneva Code which prohibits the testing of chemicals on human beings without their consent. In the end, this is not an agricultural issue, but a human rights issue, and by siding with forces who would set aside the edicts of the Geneva Code, for any reason whatsoever, your stance is unpatriotic.

Your article is now being circulated amongst the survivors of CDFA’s 2007 experimentation without consent, and there will not be one reader among them who is not personally hurt by your dismissal of the very real suffering they have experienced. These men, women and children are your neighbors and your fellow citizens, deserved of the basic protections of their human rights that I would hope to see accorded to you, sir.

I urge you to further investigate OEHHA’s report on their website, and to consider publishing an apology to the Central Coast families who are still living in fear, anger and anxiety over having been sprayed with chemicals without their consent. Your article will have hurt them deeply. They do not need to be further mistreated.

Sincerely,
&etc.

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UPDATE: Well, I tried to give Mr. Harry Cline the benefit of the doubt, in case he had somehow missed the outcome of the OEHHA report, or was simply not as familiar as he ought to be with the subject, but I’m afraid his response to my polite email reveals not only a frightening ignorance as to the fact that the substance sprayed on the Central Coast is, indeed, classified as a pesticide, but it also reveals a lack of manners. His denial that he wrote this article is particularly strange, as it continues to sit there on the website with his byline under the title. I’m afraid that the fear-mongering tactics of the USDA/CDFA have managed to convince people like Mr. Cline that the threat posed by the LBAM, which has done ZERO damage in the United States, is only exceeded by the threat of an educated public, who will continue to believe that spraying pesticides on people is wrong…and that Rachel Carson was right.

Here is Harry Cline’s response:

Phantom Menace….what are you talking about. I did not write an article entitled Phantom Menace.

You people are nuts. Comparing a pheromone treatment to Agent Orange? A pheromone is not a pesticide.

The state health department discredited virtually all of the reported illness. There were no doctor reports.

You get more PM 10 walking down the road than you would from aerial spraying of a carrier in a pheromone treatment.

Rachel Carlson/Silent Spring, has long ago been discredited by highly respected scientists. Check out the reports from Dr. Bruce Ames of UC Berkeley.

DDT is the primarily reason millions worldwide do not die annually from malaria. DDT has never been linked to any human illness. Its downfall was that it weakened the shell of bird eggs. You had better pray that the materials mosquito abatement districts use to protect you continue to be effective. If it does not, you better hope there is enough DDT available to control the mosquitoes in your neighborhood.

Apology? Your actions are threatening the agricultural economy of this state; the viability of a vast food supply that is feeding the world and the livelihood of thousands of people. If the state of California fails to eradicate LBAM because of your radical rantings and it gets into the valley, I think you people ought to be held criminally liable for the losses.

Harry Cline

Editor

Western Farm Press

7084 N. Cedar #355

Fresno, CA 93720

559/298-6070

913/514-3641 (Fax)

hcline@farmpress.com

News on the LBAM front has been scarce of late, but I know all of my readers will want to read the following article, detailing OEHHA’s LBAM spray report.

This is an excellent article, and as it points out, the health harms people experienced and the future harms they feared were legitimate.

While, as vegans, we do not support animal testing and are very sorrowful to think of the poor laboratory animals being subjected to the same sickness and indignity suffered by Central Coast families in 2007, all Californians should read the Chronicle article and its indictment of CDFA for having experimented on human beings without their consent, in violation of the Geneva Convention. Sec. Kawamura and Gov. Schwarzenegger are morally responsible for damage that has been done to free American citizens and they do not belong in any office that governs public welfare.

Dear President Elect Obama,
Last night, I wept, danced, shouted with joy as I felt the yoke of shame lightened which I have carried all of my life as an American, knowing of the injustice, apartheid, violence and genocide to which people of color have been subjected by white people since the very founding of this nation. Millions of tireless steps have been taken by countless African Americans, both famous and unnamed, leading up to this moment in history when our country would at long last relinquish the whip-hand of prejudice and embrace the diversity that is the true foundation of our greatness as a united people.

I will never forget the pure joy I felt last night.

This is a time for celebration. But, it is also a time of utter seriousness. If I could speak to you in person, as a friend, this is the video I would show to you. I would like to sit down with you and we could watch this video together, and then, as Christians, we would agree with Dr. King that we must stand together for justice - not oppression, for the poor - not the exploitative forces in the world - for peace and not war.

When you enter the White House, you will be surrounded by the history of war, and even the players in the wars of the past decades. You will be working in an atmosphere of executives who believe that war on the innocent is the solution to economic hardships at home, that war is the solution to acquiring treasure, that war is the solution to cultural and political differences.

As people of faith, we cannot allow ourselves to be corrupted by this atmosphere. We cannot justify the deaths of innocent peoples because we need oil, need subservience, need to stand at the top.

I believe in your hope. I believe you are sincere in your wish for real change. I believe the change we need is a break, once and for all, with the politics of violence and fear that have so unjustly ended the lives of incalculable numbers of God’s children over the sorrowful course of history.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. At long last, we have said no to prejudice, to hatred and the history of violence in our own country. Now is your chance to teach America to say no to these evils everywhere.

I’m praying for you and your family.
Mim