Press Release:
NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: May 24th, 2009

Media Contacts:

Yannick Phillips, Mothers Advocating for Children’s Health (MACH – Sonoma), (707) 933-0312

Debbie Friedman, Mothers of Marin Against the Spray (MOMAS), (415) 380-8578

Helen Kozoriz, Stop the Spray, (510) 336-0499

Paulina Borsook, Stop the Spray, (831) 429-8699


MOTHERS, FARMERS, AND SCIENTISTS CONVERGE TO DISCUSS LIGHT BROWN APPLE MOTH ERADICATION PROGRAM

Community forum planned for Sonoma County

WHAT: Panel discussion, Q&A; admission free

WHEN: Thursday, May 28th from 7:15pm to 9:30pm

WHERE: Sonoma Community Center, 276 East Napa Street, Sonoma, California

WHO: Ken Brown, Sonoma mayor; Frank Egger, former Fairfax mayor; James Carey, entomologist, UC-Davis; John Connell, director, Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services, California Department of Food and Agriculture (invited but declined); Caroline Cox, research director, Center for Environmental Health; Mike De Lay, coordinator, Coalition of California Cities to Stop the Spray; Dan Harder, botanist, UC-Santa Cruz; Chris Mittelstaedt, founder and CEO, The FruitGuys; Cathy Neville, agricultural commissioner, Sonoma County

WHY: To examine the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Light Brown Apple Moth eradication program

Sonoma, CA — With the battle heating up over the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) eradication program in Napa and Sonoma Counties, several mothers’ groups and farmers decided to sponsor a public forum in the town of Sonoma. At issue is whether the program is safe, necessary or effective.

The forum will be moderated by Ken Brown, Sonoma mayor, and Frank Egger, former Fairfax mayor. The panelists include James Carey, entomologist, UC-Davis; John Connell, director, Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services, CDFA (invited but declined); Caroline Cox, research director, Center for Environmental Health; Mike De Lay, coordinator, Coalition of California Cities to Stop the Spray; Dan Harder, botanist, UC-Santa Cruz; Chris Mittelstaedt, founder and CEO, The FruitGuys; and Cathy Neville, agricultural commissioner, Sonoma County.

The event will be held on May 28th from 7:15pm to 9:30pm at the Sonoma Community Center, 276 East Napa Street. Admission is free, and local organic snacks and refreshments will be provided. The public will have ample opportunity to ask questions during an hour of Q&A.

Dr. Carey, an expert in invasion biology, insect demography, and population dynamics, believes that the current distribution of LBAM in California, covering at least 10 counties with a combined area of between 8,000 to 10,000 square miles, suggests that LBAM is not a recent introduction, but has been in the state for perhaps 30 to 50 years, or longer. In a testimony to the Agriculture Committee at the State Capitol last year, he said, “The argument that LBAM is a recent invader because no populations were detected by CDFA in 2005 cannot be reconciled with LBAM’s current widespread distribution. This recent invader argument is simply not credible.”

Yannick Phillips, a Sonoma resident and founder of Mothers Advocating for Children’s Health (MACH-Sonoma) says, “While our teachers are being laid off and countless children living below the poverty line will be denied access to health care due to cuts in the California budget, it is outrageous that our federal government wasted approximately 90 million dollars of taxpayer’s money on a moth that does little damage, and is willing to spend an estimated 400 million more dollars in an attempt to eradicate this insect.”

Debbie Friedman, a Marin resident and chair of Mothers of Marin Against the Spray (MOMAS) says, “It is unconscionable that our elected officials and government agencies continue to spend enormous sums of money in pursuit of a flawed program without sound, scientific justification. Pesticides pose serious risks to human health, particularly children, the elderly and those with chronic illness. It is telling that after all these months there is no documented damage from this moth.”

About the LBAM eradication program

In the summer of 2007, CDFA began a controversial LBAM eradication program after the insect was trapped for the first time in California. Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties were aerially sprayed with Checkmate, an untested synthetic pheromone-based pesticide. After three rounds of spraying, 643 documented adverse health complaints were collected by a concerned citizen, including two reports of children who almost died from severe respiratory symptoms.

When the aerial spray program moved to the Bay Area, it was met with an enormous public outcry. Grassroots groups such as Stop the Spray and MOMAS staged a coordinated community effort which successfully halted the aerial spray over urban areas on June 18th, 2008.

However, the eradication program is far from over. According to CDFA, aerial spray is not off the table for “rural” or “forested” areas, and ground-based applications of pesticides are planned for both urban and rural communities. Furthermore, the LBAM program area has expanded to include almost the entire state.

CDFA and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) continue to impose quarantines on hundreds of acres of farmland in California. A federal quarantine is triggered when two LBAMs are trapped within a 1.5 mile radius. In Napa and Sonoma Counties, quarantines have placed a burden on farmers and growers, compelling public officials to act quickly in order to avoid losses to the agriculture industry.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors recently sent a letter to CDFA and USDA to resolve the quarantine issue. The risks to public health and the environment from the proposed pesticide treatments were not addressed. In addition, this request failed to consider the lack of actual crop damage from the moth, or the fundamental problems of outdated trade policy.

On May 12th, a lawsuit filed against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in San Francisco Federal Court was dismissed after the government agency revoked its approval of Checkmate. However, residents worry that the EPA intends to replace Checkmate with another toxic aerial spray.

Meanwhile, the USDA is reviewing a petition to reclassify LBAM from Class A (serious pest) to Class C (of minor concern).

An Environmental Impact Report on the LBAM eradication program is scheduled for release in early June.

To date, there have been no reports of LBAM-related crop loss in California.

###