Marin Agricultural Commissioner Stacy Carlsen has just played Judas in his county by negotiating a contract with the state that will give him nearly $150,000 for continuing to foist the ludicrous light brown apple moth (LBAM) eradication program on the community he is supposed to serve. If you live in Marin, you’ve already seen the toxic, white, triangular traps hanging from trees everywhere, from neighborhoods to precious wild lands, endangering coastal waters, animals, birds and insects. Be on the lookout for the toxic twist ties that will now follow, thanks to Carlsen’s egregiously bad plan.
Carlsen gets a fat $10,000 bonus for himself (a sum vaguely described as his reward for ‘spearheading’ the program) and the rest of the money will be used for twist ties and inspections. All for nothing! The light brown apple moth fiasco continues to be one of the phoniest, most underhanded and dangerous grabs for state and federal funding anyone has ever attempted to pull off in California, and newspapers like the Point Reyes Light continue to make matters worse by re-printing the misleading speil of the California Department of Agriculture regarding the toxicity of the chemicals contained in their twist ties and traps.
This recent article by Kyle Cashulin is a perfect example of how easy it is for state ag officials to get non-diligent reporters to use their chosen marketing language for describing what is, in fact, a dangerous substance. Calling pheromone-pesticides ‘perfumes’ does not magically turn them into Old Spice cologne, but if people choose not to think too deeply about what they are reading, words like these do a truly magical job of creating apathy and ignorance. When West Marin’s primary newspaper can’t do better than this, I’d say this special county, with its high proportion of environmentally-minded residents, is in trouble.
For actual facts about the contents of the toxic twist ties, please refer to this article which describes the danger these chemicals pose to people, animals and the water supply. Considering the fact that no one can swim at Samuel P. Taylor park any more because of the poisonous water and that the coho salmon are barely managing to hang on throughout their historic waterway through the San Geronimo Valley out to sea, West Marin citizens have every reason to refuse to allow Stacy Carlsen to further pollute local water by introducing chemicals into the area which are specifically prohibited from being used near water. West Marin has water everywhere, from roadside ditches to creeks, rivers and the Nicassio Reservoir. Then there is Tomales Bay, and, of course, the Pacific Ocean. Rain on the twist ties will cause the chemicals to get into the water (against the law) and these chemicals will cause harm…all for a tiny moth that has never done any damage to anything in California despite decades of existence here.
So far, the LBAM program has been cited as:
-Sickenening hundreds of Central Coast families and putting children in the hospital
-Killing thousands of sea birds including the federally protected endangered Brown Pelican
-Killing domestic animals, pets and honey bees
-being illegally conducted, as was ruled by two courts in California
-Using pesticides that were subsequently banned by the EPA after being sprayed on human beings
-Causing incalculable amounts of stress to California citizens
-Turning formerly pro-government citizens against government agencies
-Draining California’s drastically troubled budget
But Ag Commissioner Carlsen wants to continue this scandalous charade in West Marin, with big money for him and his department and a further dose of toxins for a community which is still reeling from the news that the county ag commissioners have violated Marin’s own pesticide use laws 90 times in the past decade. East Marin suffers from one of the highest cancer rates in the world. West Marin struggles to build a name for itself as a GMO-free, organic farming community. Add all these things up and I think Carlsen’s deal with the government can easily be viewed in the light of betrayal in which the critically ill people of the east county and the valiantly environmental people of the west county will be needlessly exposed to further doses of toxins and ‘secret’ ingredients, unless this greedy, bad, unwanted plan is stopped. Please, if you live in Marin, tune into this issue to find out about what community efforts will be made to stop Carlsen’s plan. Your health, and the health of beautiful Marin County, is riding on it.
7 users commented in " LBAM Scandal Continues In West Marin With Big Money For Carlsen "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe posting contains both factual errors and wrongly casts Stacy Carlsen’s role and responsibilities as County Ag Commissioner and Sealer.
Factual errors:
1. White panel detection traps are neither toxic (they kill bugs that stick to their glue)nor endanger birds, animals (except those insects), nor do they have any effect whatsoever on coastal waters.
2. County agricultural departments throughout the state are legally obligated to follow state laws and implement state programs. The funds reimburse the county for the services it must provide.
3. The Light Brown Apple Moth has caused total loss of organic berry crops and cosmetic damage to ornamental crops in California.
4. The moth has not been present in California for decades. In all likelihood, it was introduced in the Alameda County area near the Port of Oakland sometime in the early 2000′s.
5. No causative link has been identified between human illnesses reported from the few sprayings of LBAM pheromone, but the killing of sea birds that coincided with one of the spraying events have been proven to be caused by red-tide algaeal bloom toxins unrelated to the spraying.
Welcome Robert,
We are, of course, familiar with your name and your position at CANGC, and have followed your comments over the past few years on this issue. If you have run into our publication during the past few years on the LBAM issue, likely you already know that we’re going to refute what you are calling ‘factual errors’ in our piece.
We are truly sorry about the completely erroneous quarantines that have been placed on California nurseries as a result of the LBAM program, and are surprised, frankly, that as the VP of CANGC, this action on the part of the CDFA hasn’t been enough to turn you against what they are doing. Your support of CDFA, however, sounds pretty settled, but we’ll respond to your criticisms anyway.
1. White panel traps contain a pheromone-pesticide + secret ingredients which neither you nor we can identify the toxicity of thanks to government policies that protect industry rather than citizen health. Pheromone-pesticides are pesticides and we have now talked to numerous immune-deficient citizens who felt they became ill after being exposed to the traps at a meeting two years ago. In addition to the pheromone pesticide and secret ingredients being unhealthy, the traps kill all insects that get stuck in them, including our endangered honey bees and other insects commonly termed ‘beneficial’.
For more information: http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/lbam.html#ABOUTTHEPESTICIDES
2. CDFA was found guilty of breaking county laws by 2 superior courts in 2008 – in Monterey and Santa Cruz. They are lawbreakers, Robert, and by choosing to take orders from lawbreakers, Stacy Carlsen is not serving his own county – Marin. Marin is a special place, where people are making an exceptional effort to farm organically. Rather than advocating for these citizens, Carlsen is taking money for walking the party line of a law-breaking organization that will expose his own neighbors and his own environment to documented toxins in the form of twist ties.
For More Information: http://www.lbamspray.com/Court%20Cases.htm
3. We guess that you know we’re going to disagree about the berry damage, which, as you know, has not been definitively attributed to LBAM (could just as well be another native leafroller) and was certainly not ‘total’, as you state.
For More Information: http://www.lbamspray.com/00_Documents/2010/PressReleaseFinalLBAMEIRReleased.pdf
4. Again, we are sure you are aware that independent scientists have repeatedly stated that LBAM may have been here for decades, but you are choosing to quote government-funded scientists regarding how long LBAM has been here.
5. The killing of sea birds was NOT caused by algae bloom. The birds were covered with a yellow slime that was also found all over the towns of Monterey & Santa Cruz. How can an algae bloom happen on top of people’s cars, in hammocks, in upturned canoes in people’s backyards, covering everything with the same yellow slime that was covering the thousands of dead sea birds? We’re sure you’re familiar with Roy Upton and his demand for an answer to this rather important question, and his condemnation of Fish & Game for suddenly changing their story about what had killed the birds to being that they’d been killed by red tide.
As for human beings being sickened by the egregious 2007 aerial spraying, as you know, Robert, the EPA subsequently banned the pesticide that was used because of its danger to human health, and in particular, its PM10 content which CDFA (whether intentionally or not) miscalculated and which the American Lung Association cited as a potentially-fatal health hazard. It isn’t hard for us to believe that a banned pesticide made all those families ill, and after having had them leave repeated comments on our blog about the sickness they experienced, we’ve determined that we believe the people, and not the law-breaking agency that we feel violated the Geneva Convention by conducting an experiment on non-consenting human beings by aerially spraying them with an untested pesticide which was subsequently banned.
Doubtless, you have reflected deeply on this subject and have reached your own conclusions via a search of your heart for what is right, but we have a feeling you may already have known our publication would be on the other side of the fence when you took the time to comment here. Our own experience in this matter is what causes us to view Carlsen’s lapdog stance as a betrayal to the health and values of Marin County people. And, we would like to further add that your criticism of our piece is not refuting it’s chief point: the fact that Carlsen’s plan to cover Marin in twist ties poses a thread to humans, animals and the water supply. This is a very, very bad plan.
Marin needs an Ag Commissioner who is ready to advocate for the change we need to see in California’s insanely rampant pesticide use that has left our waters undrinkable, our birds, frogs and bees on the brink of extinction, our fish full of toxins and our people dropping ill one-by-one of environmental diseases. The LBAM program is just one of the problems, but Carlsen’s willingness to get in step with the law-breaking CDFA and expose his own county to these totally unnecessary toxins shows he is not strong enough to fight for what is right.
You, too, are in a unique position of power, as regards your position with CANGC and could be a major advocate for a change towards the organic re-greening of California’s nursery trade, to protect nursery workers, nursery customers and the environment. You have a unique opportunity to consider and work for this, if you love our state and its people. Only when California develops a zero tolerance policy for pesticides/herbicides/fungicides can we hope to begin healing what the non-Native people in this land have done to the land so long held in trust by my indigenous ancestors. Right now, government agencies and related industries are doing everything wrongly, everything backward when it comes to land stewardship, and the use of pesticides is second only to the GMO problem in what is being done wrongly.
But we can change this, and you can be a part of that. Your background and position provide you with a unique opportunity to begin cleaning up California and turning our state into a role model for other parts of the country where people’s lives are being destroyed by pesticide use. Please, continue to think about this issue, and the positive role you might play in this history of our Earth. We urge you to consider this, with all respect.
It really is sad that members of the public have to do your homework for you, Robert, and that you don’t have a firm handle on the facts that impact your own industry:
1.
As Mim already explained, LBAM traps contain a lure with the same synthetic “pheromone” as is in the twist ties, SPLAT, flakes, capsules, and any other application method. Many synthetic “pheromones” have been shown to be toxic to aquatic species, as cited by Dr. Richard Philp in his Analysis of Toxicology Studies with LBAM and Related Lepidopteran Pheromones, which you can read here: http://www.lbamspray.com/00_Documents/2007/ANALYSIS%20OF%20TOXICOLOGY%20STUDIES%20WITH%20LBAM%20AND%20RELATED%20LEPID.pdf
As you can see on the labels of any of the LBAM “pheromone” pesticides, they require an environmental hazard statement on the label, regarding dangers of contaminating water. Here, for example the two “pheromone” pesticides still listed for use in the LBAM Program:
Twist Ties: http://www.pacificbiocontrol.com/Pacific_Biocontrol_Corporation/Light_Brown_Apple_Moth_files/LBAMSect18revLabel.pdf
SPLAT: http://www.iscatech.com/exec/DocLib/ISCA_Product_Label_-_SPLAT_LBAM_HD_web.pdf
If you request the MSDS for the LBAM lure from Scentry, you will see that it too says to “Keep out of water sources” and away from “domestic water supplies”: http://www.scentry.com
2.
The Marin County’s agricultural department is not obligated by the state to apply LBAM twist ties at all, because Marin County is not currently on the CDFA list of areas to be treated: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/PDEP/lbam/treatment_maps.html
In fact, on the county’s “Pest Exclusion” webpage it clearly specifies what sort of action various “pests” trigger. It indicates that LBAM has an “A” rating, which requires “State Action”. It does not indicate a “B” rating requiring “County Action”, nor a “C” rating which may require “County Action at Discretion of the Agricultural Commissioner”: http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/ag/main/pestex.cfm
Marin County Ag Commissioner Carlsen has taken it upon himself to put up toxic twist ties anywhere he apparently feels like, without any maps or notice to the public of where they will be applied.
3.
As someone personally cited in CDFA’s Environmental Impact Report for LBAM, you really ought to know what the rest of the document says, Robert. Long after those sensationalistic media reports about LBAM damage hit the news stand, even the state’s own EIR admits that there has been NO damage from LBAM. See pages 20 and 21 in Chapter 3: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/LBAMeir/CH%203_Ag%20&%20Econ.pdf
Recent “likely” LBAM damage reported on a blog showed photos of strawberries with a bit of webbing, which can only be considered “damage” by people who don’t know how to wash their produce: http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=2830
Still no damage from LBAM after all these many years. But plenty of damage to the farming community from this manufactured crisis, by way of careless inspectors, oppressive quarantines, and organic farms forced to either spray or get shut down every time a bug is found. And plenty of damage from ever more toxic substances being perpetrated on our communities and ecosystems.
4.
According to entomologists, people who actually know something about bugs, LBAM has to have been here far decades longer than CDFA has claimed, because it’s not possible for this moth to have spread as far in such a short period of time. Dr. James Carey testified that this was his and several other entomologists’ professional opinion before the Senate Enviromental Quality Committee: http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/Senate_Environmental_Committee_LBAM1.pdf
5.
Unsurprisingly, since the pesticide applications over Monterey and Santa Cruz in 2007 took place without any public agency taking responsibility for collecting health complaints, the analysis of the Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment (OEHHA) several months later was inconclusive, because “not enough information was available to determine if there was or was not a link between the symptoms and the pheromone applications. The possibility that some of the symptoms were caused by the application could not be ruled out”: http://www.oehha.ca.gov/pesticides/pdf/LBAMConsensus110308.pdf
Instead heroic members of the public gathered health reports themselves, including checking in with homeless neighbors hit most directly by this chemical assault: http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/spraycompl2.pdf
And plenty of physicians responded as well, such as Dr. Lawrence Rose, recently retired senior Public Medical Officer for Cal-OSHA, who determined that the health complaints “are consistent with known toxicology scientific information of the ingredients of Checkmate… These ingredients include irritants, sensitizers, nervous system disrupters, endocrine disruption, allergens, and hypersensitivity induction. Long term health effects are also of concern due to the known induced mutations and suspected cancer risks of constituent chemicals.”
Dr. Rose also pointed out that “Physicians are legally required to report diagnosed pesticide diagnosis; but in the two sprayed counties there was no systematic notification that included probably short term health reactions sent to health providers, first responders, emergency rooms, or all residents before the September, October, and November 2007 sprayings. This is a shocking disregard of human rights in any democracy”: http://www.stopthespray.org/resources/health/RoseHealthHazardReport.pdf
69 physicians wrote a joint letter of concern to the governor and the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in the aftermath of the spraying: http://bigagbigchem.org/babc/LBAMSpray/MDletterfinalLVformat2NosigImage.pdf
The limited acute testing of LBAM “pheromone” products, which was ordered by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008, revealed safety concerns, including discolored organs in exposed test animals, and alarming effects on the immune system. Read Dr. Ann Haiden’s summary about these tests here: http://drhaiden.com/wp-content/uploads/lbam-6-pack-commentary.pdf
As for the hundreds of birds found dead after the LBAM pesticide applications in 2007, this summary of the state study of the bird deaths clarifies that the yellow foam, which was attributed to the red tide, also occurred inland and was associated with the LBAM spray: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/27/18573758.php?show_comments=1#comments
There is also indication that the pesticide applications contributed to the forming of the red tide itself. The chemical cocktail was washed into the storm drains and into the bay by the rain immediately after the spraying, and it contained both surfactants, as well as urea, a favorite food of algal blooms, as this research on the effects of urban runoff shows: http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/archive/99-00/02-00/algal_blooms.htm
Surfers, who are well familiar with red tides, discussed how this one was different than any other anyone had been exposed to over the course of several decades: http://youtube.com/watch?v=PvDHzQKaqqI
For a thorough analysis of the impact of the pesticide applications on birds and other animals see: http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/SprayEffectsAnimalsPets.pdf
Robert,
CANGC is not benefiting nurseries and gardeners by parroting the state’s hyperbole about a harmless moth, nor by allowing yourself to be used by the CDFA to validate the ridiculous assertion that a “No Program” alternative for the LBAM Program would result in increased agricultural pesticide use. In case you are not aware of how your name will be associated with these historical events, see page 34 of Chapter 2 of the Final Programmatic Impact Report for the LBAM Program: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/LBAMeir/Final%20PEIR_CH%202%20Master%20Resp_FEB2010_WEB.pdf
You work with the regulatory bureaucracy, so you should be well aware why anyone would be panicking and reaching for poison. It’s not because of the threat of a tiny leafroller, but because of oppressive quarantines and related actions over a bug that is doing no damage. It is completely irrational to suggest that pesticide applications prevent pesticide applications. Poison is not the antidote to poisoning.
Dear Isis,
What an exceptional response, and full of even more thorough and informative resources than our own. You are an amazing researcher and scholar on this subject and we truly thank you for taking such time to present the side of the LBAM story we have firmly come to believe is the only legitimate one. Thank you, thank you!
Mim
Let’s unseat Stacey Carlsen! If this isn’t an example of a kickback scheme, I do not know what is. I’m not kidding-a critical element of the anti-pesticide movement’s campaign should be to locate a viable candidate for the post of Agricultural Commissioner. Carlsen is a joke.
Furthermore, I can personally attest to the damage and havoc that pesticides wreak. I was poisoned at my former workpalce due to the application of supposedly “safe” pesticides to eradicate a rodent infestation. Last time I checked,the rats were still there in spite of all the posions being thrown at them, but I wasn’t. I had to leave for my health-due to the rapid onset of neurological symptoms and an extreme attack of pancreatitis linked to toxic exposures.
Welcome, Caroline,
I apologize for my delayed response to your spirited and welcome comment. I have been away from VeganReader for about a week. I support your suggestion that getting pro-organic people into the Ag department would be a remarkable turn of events…a coup, really! Wouldn’t we all love to see that happen?
I’m really sorry to hear about your terrible experience with pesticides…presumably what you encountered was a rodenticide. My family, too, has been harmed by exposure to pesticides/herbicides and it’s because of this that I continue to speak the truth about this whenever I can. I hope you have seen some improvement in your health over time, but I know first-hand that the long-term effects of pesticides can be so persistent and damaging. Please, keep telling people about what happened to you, Caroline. And, please, allow me to wish you the best.
Mim
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