Friday, August 29, 2008
10AM PROTEST

11:00am – 12:30pm A.G. Kawamura on panel at http://slowfoodnation.org/

Herbst Theater, 401 Van Ness Avenue at McAllister Street, San Francisco (across from City Hall)
(Directions: http://sfwmpac.org/herbst/ht_popups/directpark.html)

Ticket Price/Student Ticket Price:
$20/$10 Student ticket holders will be requested to show valid student identification at the door.

PROTESTING OUTSIDE IS FREE

Ag Secretary A.G. Kawamura (California Department of Food and Agriculture) is scheduled to participate in one of several panel discussions at Slow Food Nation, this one entitled: “Building a New Food System: Policy and Planning”.

Kawamura gave orders to spray pesticides over the people of Monterey and Santa Cruz in the Fall of 2007, injuring hundreds who reported it (and many more who did not), and killing hundreds of birds. His plan to eradicate the light brown apple moth, and several other harmless insects and plants across the state, continues with various toxic methods that are putting us all at risk. For more information, please see http://www.dontspraycalifornia.org/lbam.html

Ask Kawamura about his coercive policy of massive, statewide chemical use, and its impact on our health, our environment, and our access to truly organic food without synthetics. Let him know how you feel about his pest(icide) of the month club.

****************

After the Protest, Tune In to KPFA 94.1 FM for “Little Brown Moth”

Friday, August 29, 2008
2:30pm - 3pm Pushing Limits – Disability Radio

KPFA 94.1 FM or http://kpfa.org/

Radio Show: “Little Brown Moth” — Part One

A discussion of the LBAM eradication, hosted by Jean Stewart. Guests include Connie Barker (Environmental Health Network), Maxina Ventura (Don’t Spray California) and Dr. Betty McGee (BayView-Hunters Point Health & Environmental Resource Center). Co-produced by Eddie Ytuarte, Adrienne Lauby and Jean Stewart.

State Asked to Rescind Report on Spraying Illnesses

July 31, 2008

A group of 18 mayors and other elected officials today requested that the directors of three state agencies retract a report on 643 illness complaints filed after last fall’s aerial pesticide spraying for the light brown apple moth (LBAM).

The letter notes that the state’s report, which concluded that it was not possible to determine whether there was a link between the spray and the illnesses, was flawed because it was based on incorrect information, provided by the pesticide manufacturer, about the size of the microparticles in the spray.

The letter, signed by more than a dozen mayors and city council members from the East Bay, Marin, and the Central Coast, also requests that Governor Schwarzenegger, State Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura, and other state officials stop saying publicly that there is “no link” between the spraying and the illnesses even though that was not the report’s conclusion.

“The state’s report was always inconclusive, and now we know it was also deeply flawed,” said Albany Mayor Robert Lieber, who is a registered nurse.

A review of last fall’s spray ingredients was published earlier this year by two independent scientists, Jeff Haferman, Ph.D. and Dennis Knepp, Ph.D. Haferman and Knepp established that about half of the spray’s plastic microparticles were 10 microns or smaller in diameter, which poses a serious health risk.

The state’s illness report had based its analysis on information from the pesticide manufacturer stating that the microparticle size was 20-25 microns. The microparticles were the time-released delivery mechanism for the pesticide, which was made up of synthetic moth pheromones and a number of other ingredients.

According to the American Lung Association, breathing particulate matter that is 10 microns or smaller in size can reach a person’s deep lung tissue and cause a variety of illnesses, including asthma.

The letter was sent to Joan Denton, director of the Office of Health Hazard Assessment; Mary-Ann Warmerdam, director of the Department of Pesticide Regulation; and Mark Horton, director of the Department of Public Health, whose agencies wrote the state report on the illness complaints. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and several state and federal elected officials were also sent copies of the letter.

“The state has taken the first step in the right direction by halting aerial spraying over urban areas. Now it is time for them to accurately analyze the hundreds of illnesses that occurred late last year,” said Lieber. “This is particularly important because the state still plans to spray forested and agricultural areas; given the number of illness reports received last year, we cannot proceed with any further LBAM spray until a full, valid study of those illnesses has been done.”

Haferman said, “There is a strong link in the scientific literature between microparticles that are 10 microns and smaller and illnesses like those people suffered late last year on the Central Coast. I think the Governor should take the high road and insist that a more thorough, accurate and peer reviewed study of the illnesses be completed before any further eradication measures take place.”

The state report analyzed fewer than 10 percent of the 643 illness complaints, and none of the individuals or physicians who reported illnesses were contacted as part of the investigation.

Mike Lynberg, a Monterey Peninsula resident who collected many of the health complaints after the state failed to put any formal structure in place for collecting them, notes, “Even though at least one child nearly died of respiratory failure following the aerial spraying and several other people were hospitalized, the state still has not interviewed a single person who got sick or any of the 74 doctors who filed pesticide illness reports on their behalf. We should expect much more of state agencies responsible for protecting the public’s health.”

Although the State Department of Food and Agriculture says that highly populated areas will no longer be aerially sprayed for LBAM, public interest groups fear that the spraying of forested and rural areas will drift and that the spraying also will affect people who live in these isolated areas or who are there for recreation.

“The state has not said where the ‘forested’ areas are that it plans to spray. Do they include Mt. Tamalpais in the middle of Marin County, or Golden Gate Park? It’s also possible that the state will use aerial spraying for other insect species in the future. This is another reason we believe it is important to have an accurate investigation and record of the past spraying-related illnesses,” said Lieber.

Greetings Readers!

Do you have questions and concerns that you want to be included in the LBAM Environmental Impact Report draft? Now is the time to send them to CDFA’s Jim Rains.

Deadline: August 19th 2008

Sending a real letter is best, but you may also send a fax or email, though it’s easier for these to get ‘lost’.

Contact Information:

Jim Rains, Staff Environmental Scientist
CA Dept. of Food and Agriculture
1220 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916-654-1018
Email: jrains@cdfa.ca.gov
Phone: 916-654-0317

Jim Rains
Staff Environmental Scientist
California Department of Food and Agriculture
Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services Division
1220 N Street, Room A-316
Sacramento, Ca 95814

Or send emails to: LBAM_PEIR@cdfa.ca.gov

CDFA Being Sneaky

The CDFA has fallen under severe criticism from Senator Simitian for deciding to hold only 2 scoping sessions in the entire state (one in LA and one in Sacramento) despite the fact that their pesticide plans encompass 12 whole counties across the state.

Here is Senator Simitian’s letter to A.G. Kawamura:

July 25, 2008

Mr. A.G. Kawamura
Secretary Department of Food and Agriculture
1220 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Secretary Kawamura:

Throughout the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) controversy, I have tried to give you and the Department of Food and Agriculture the benefit of the doubt.

However, the Department’s recent decision to limit its scoping sessions to venues in Los Angeles and Sacramento is incomprehensible and unacceptable.

The purpose of these scoping sessions is to provide the affected members of the public with a meaningful opportunity to comment. Failure to hold at least one session at a location on the Central Coast or in the San Francisco Bay Area threatens the validity of the EIR, and can only engender continued anger and opposition to your plan.

In the strongest possible terms, I urge you to reconsider the
locations for these hearings.

Sincerely,

S. Joseph Simitian
State Senator, 11the District

Clearly, CDFA is trying to keep the whole EIR process as hush hush as possible and their choice to hold scoping sessions in only 2 locations when millions of Californians will be affected by the outcome is unacceptable but typical of their general lack of respect for public input.

Mark that deadline on your calendar for contributing to the EIR.

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.

My thanks to valued reader Mary Anne Gaskins for pointing me to this document on the health hazards of BT from Pesticide.org.

After having been aerially sprayed with toxic pesticides in 2007 by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, hundreds of Central California families fell ill, 2 small children nearly died in the hospital of respiratory failure and heart failure, hundreds of sea birds washed up dead on the beaches and songbirds, rabbits, cats, dogs and bees died.

If you’d think that the consequences of this act of destruction would be trials and sentencing for the responsible parties, think again. Not only has the CDFA not been charged with causing sickness and death to countless living beings, they are currently rolling right along with ever new plans to spray ever-widening areas of the state with further pesticides and toxic chemicals. Their plan now encompasses 12 counties and millions and millions of people.

Today, I want to focus on just one of the substances CDFA intends to use in their attack on the harmless Light Brown Apple Moth - you will quickly see that the release of this substance into our habitat is, indeed, an attack on the family of man.

BT - Bacillus Thuringiensis Kurstaki (Btk) And Its Threat To You

For complete details, and for your own protection, I urge you to read the full article I linked to in the opening of this post. Here, I will offer a summary of the facts:

• BT (also called BTK) is a bacteria and a pesticide
• BT is part of a family of dangerous bacteria which includes Bacillus cereus which causes food poisoning and Bacillus anthracis which causes anthrax.
• BT is aerially sprayed, meaning the bacteria fills the air and contaminates everything with which it comes into contact - people, animals, water, food and land
• BT is marketed to chemically-addicted industries as a way to kill the caterpillars of butterflies and moths
• When caterpillars eat leaves that have been coated with this insidious pesticide, it releases a poison called an ‘endotoxin’ in their digestive system. This poison kills the caterpillars
• As with nearly everything being sprayed by the CDFA, no meaningful studies have been done on the chronic effects of this substance on human beings. As with nearly everything else, the product has been marketed and accepted as ’safe’ without proof.
• In one of the few studies conducted, it was discovered that BT bacteria spores were present in the lungs and intestines of farmworkers who had been applying BT - in other words, they were infected with this bacteria.
• People absorb BT via breathing it into their lungs or eating food that has been contaminated with it
• One of the main documented effects of BT on human beings is a severe diarrhea associated with food poisoning (remember, BT is almost indistinguishable from the bacteria which is notorious for causing food poisoning)
• People exposed to BT are in danger of developing a disastrous bacterial infection which may literally destroy their autoimmune systems - giving them any of the many autoimmune diseases which are being slated as the scourge of modern man.

That’s the quick rundown, based upon my understanding of the substance CDFA intends to spray on farming communities and forested areas across the state of California.

To you and to me, it seems very obvious that one wouldn’t spray people or food with a bacteria which is linked to food poisoning. To you and to me, it’s a no-brainer that it should be illegal to introduce dangerous bacteria into the habitat and watershed of American citizens. Unfortunately, CDFA doesn’t see it this way and is allowed, by law, to spray you and your family with bacteria. Chemical manufacturers and pesticide addicts are allowed to refer to the bacteria as ’safe’ and our government then allows them to expose millions of innocent, free citizens to this grotesque substance without any threat of punishment.

If a foreign power were to arrive in California with airplane and backpack spray machines, coating the people with bacteria, I imagine that would be seen as an attack. But when these attacks are instigated by ‘our government’ and ‘corporations’, it would seem they have total immunity from the constitutional law which fully protects Californians’ right to safety.

It’s madness. It’s injustice. And, the people of California are busily at work right now forming plans to fight the CDFA’s endangerment of human health and to force government and corporations to live by the same laws that we do.

Special Town Hall Forum and Potluck

Aerial Spray and Moth Eradication
“It’s Not Over!”

Update on a Remarkable Campaign

Monday July 28 in San Rafael
6:00 pm Potluck Dinner
7:30 pm Town Hall Forum
at First United Methodist Church
9 Ross Valley Drive, San Rafael

Come for dinner then join leading activist Frank Egger and medical expert Dr. Ann Haiden for an enlightening update on the Stop the Spray campaign.

The State of California recently postponed and modified its plan to conduct aerial spraying of the Bay Area, due to enormous public outrage and opposition from local officials, environmentalists, scientists and doctors. But the State still plans to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth. Long-time Fairfax council member and environmental leader Frank Egger will tell how a wonderful grassroots campaign continues to fight California’s powerful state-sponsored agricultural industry, including plans for litigation. Dr Ann Haiden’s presentation will draw from her recent report on health hazards of particles and toxins in the spray, and will cover public safety issues. A short documentary film will also be shown.

For information contact Craig Slater at 721-7241 or craigyes@sbcglobal.net.
Sponsored by Marin Peace and Justice Coalition and First United Methodist Church

Greetings Readers,
We are still very much here, but have been trying hard to get a clear handle on what is going on right now the with LBAM program here in California. We are still under a major threat from the CDFA’s toxic and deadly plan to spray and coat 12 counties with pesticides and other poisonous substances. The clearest explanation regarding, specifically, the aerial spraying of pesticides is that this will now be done over forests and agricultural lands.

This means incredibly dangerous toxins on your food, on farmworkers, on anyone living in or commuting through agricultural regions or forests and for anyone who visits forest for recreational purposes. The health risk are exactly what they were when CDFA was insisting that they would dump their carcinogenic chemicals on cities. The only thing that has changed is that they now intend to dump them on country people and nature lovers. They must be stopped from doing this.

Things You’ll Want To Know

From StoptheSpray.org:

CDFA latest: Notice of Preparation (NOP) for the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the LBAM program: your comments are needed for this process, see suggested bullet points at end of this message. Highlights of the CDFA Notice of Preparation (NOP) :

LBAM program is now expanded to cover almost all of the state; in other words, CDFA is trying to get advance ok to treat in almost any part of CA for LBAM although treatments are currently planned for only 12 counties

As previously announced, treatments that may be carried out in urban areas include: release of sterile moths, pheromone twist ties hung in trees, ground sprays of Bt and spinosad, application of the pesticide permethrin to telephone poles and trees, and release of large numbers of parasitic wasps. Information about each of these treatments below at the end of this message. NOTE that property owners have the right to refuse any of these treatments on their private property.

Download the NOP at the CDFA LBAM web page under “Hot Topics,:
click on the Environmental Impact Report Notice of Preparation link

Recent broadcast on Channel 11 - State Agriculture Secretary and
Marin MD Ann Haiden and Mothers of Marin Against the Spray (MOMAS) on
the LBAM program:
http://video.nbc11.com/player/?id=278347
You will see that Secretary Kawamura manages to avoid answering most
of the direct questions that are posed to him, failing to say whether
or where aerial spray will take place for LBAM or whether the state
will complete an Environmental Impact Report prior to starting LBAM
treatments.

NOTE: Interesting language inserted into state budget bill, thanks to SF
Assemblymember Mark Leno, regarding LBAM funds:

“Of the funds appropriated in this item, no funding shall be expended
for aerial spraying for the Light Brown Apple Moth until toxicology
studies on the long term comprehensive health impacts of the
synthetic pheromones used in spraying have been completed by the
Office of Health and Hazard Assessment, Department of Public Health,
and The Department of Food and Agriculture and their results are
reported to the Legislature through a letter to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.”

This language may not survive as the Governor can remove line items,
but it sends a message nonetheless.

East Bay News - BRIEF SUMMARY OF CONCERNS ABOUT PROPOSED LBAM TREATMENTS

Below are the state’s planned treatment strategies with brief comments about the problems of each. (I know you all have lots more research on these items)

Aerial spray in forested and agricultural areas — the concerns are
the same as we have been arguing for months: the pheromone pesticide
to be sprayed (the specific product has not been announced yet) is
untested for long term human health risk, the spray is not necessary
as the moth has done no damage and does none in New Zealand and other
areas where good integrated pest management practices are used, and
scientists say the spray will not work anyway. Spraying forests and
ag areas still affects people who live, work, and recreate in those
areas, and the impacts on the ecosystem are unknown.

Permethrin - permethrin is a human carcinogen and neurotoxin and is
toxic to bees and cats. The state plans to “splat” it onto telephone poles in
a sticky goo laced with pheromone to attract LBAM.

Bt and Spinosad ground spray — although these two products are used
in organic agriculture, they are not appropriate for residential/
urban settings. Bt sprayed in New Zealand (for a different insect,
not LBAM) resulted in many health complaints (see http://
www.peoplesinquiry.co.nz/). Spinosad is detrimental to bees, aquatic
organisms, and native trichogramma wasps which prey on many insects
including LBAM (and which, ironically, are part of CDFA’s program as
well)

Twist ties - pheromone twist ties are placed in large numbers
(hundreds per acre) to emit a cloud of the same synthetic pheromone
that is the active ingredient of the aerial spray. No long term
human health risk testing, and risk of contact by humans and pets is
significant given the numbers of twist ties planned and the
likelihood that they can fall from trees. The Material Safety Data
Sheet for the twist ties says they are not safe to handle with direct
skin contact.

Sterile moths - the release of milions of sterile moths over short
periods of time is a huge disruption to the ecosystem. It will
likely result in a huge increase in predators in the area; once the
released moths die — within a couple of weeks - the predators will
be looking for other things to eat. Native moths? butterflies?

Wasps — releasing large #s of native trichogramma wasps will disrupt
local ecosystems. These wasps do not parasitize only LBAM eggs –
they also affect butterflies, among others.

East Bay’s SUGGESTIONS FOR COMMENTS TO SUBMIT ON THE RECENTLY ISSUED NOTICE OF PREPARATION (NOP) FOR A PROGRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT (PEIR) FOR THE LBAM PROGRAM:

1) The geographic scope now covers most of the state. Aerial spray is no longer the focus for cities, and ground treatments are now the predominant approach there. Sterile moth releases have been added to the near-term treatments.
Therefore, new scoping sessions should be held in the Bay Area and all potentially affected areas around the state. Adequate notice should be given for all scoping sessions.

2) The NOP by law must describe, among other things, “the project’s probable environmental effects.” This NOP does not do this, stating only that the project “is not expected to result in either cumulative or direct or indirect adverse effects to human health and the environment.” (p. 4, last paragraph). We know that at least 643 people reported illness following LBAM aerial spraying last year and that hundreds of seabirds were found dead and an unusually large red tide followed
spraying as well. We know the negative health and environmental effects of the pesticides Bt, spinosad, and permethrin that are listed above in the summary review of the treatments. Clearly there is potential for significant health and environmental impacts from this program. Comments should object to the inadequate description in the NOP of the probable environmental effects of the LBAM program, noting that that this violates California Environmental Quality Act
Guideline section 15082(a)(1).

2) A “programmatic” EIR is not sufficient review for a program with this geographic scope. To be sufficient it would have to address the issues and impacts to a degree that would form the basis for decisions about impacts and treatments at specific sites to be treated in the program. If the state intends to use this programmatic
EIR as the only EIR for the program, that is absolutely not sufficient environmental review of the program.

3) Damage from last year’s spray has not adequately been investigated, and no further treatments should go forward before sufficient investigation has been done. The state’s report on the health effects is woefully inadequate, having analayzed fewer than 10 percent of the health complaints, and without contacting any
individual or physician who filed a complaint. Investigations of seabird deaths did not examine whole birds (only feathers were examnined), and investigators did not test for all the ingredients of the pesticide, only the active ingredient when the likely culprit in both the bird deaths and red tide was one of the other ingredients
(the surfactant). No investigation has been done of the effects of the spray on pollinators such as bees.

Scientists say the proposed treatments will not work to eradicate LBAM as its is too widespread in the state. CDFA’s expansion of the program to the whole state further underscores that LBAM’s presence is expected to be even more widespread, indicating even more clearly that it is established and cannot be eradicated.

SEND YOUR WRITTEN COMMENTS BY MAIL OR EMAIL TO
Jim Rains, Staff Environmental Scientist,
California Department of
Food and Agriculture
1220 N Street
Sacramento CA 95814
fax (916) 654-1018
email: jrains@cdfa.ca.gov.

OR YOU MAY TESTIFY IN PERSON AND HAND IN YOUR WRITTEN COMMENTS AT EITHER OF THE SCOPING HEARINGS:

Sacramento:
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
California Department of Food and Agriculture
1220 N Street (Auditorium)
Sacramento, CA 95814

I thank everyone who put the above information together. It has been very hard to get facts about what is going on. One thing we can all be certain of is that CDFA is determined to move forward with their backward practice of poisoning people and our habitat with pesticides and synthetic chemicals for as long as they can make money doing so. We are still under a major threat. We still need to stop this.

I will post again when I can find further pertinent information, and I send good wishes to all my readers!
Mim

Dear Readers,
We’re still trying to get settled here, and I am trying to catch up on where we are all at with the LBAM spray program. This month, residents of much of the LBAM spray zone have another toxic assault to contend with that my friends at Don’t Spray California have alerted me to - the Spartina Project.

I am new to this, but I hope to give a quick summary of what is set to begin this week. This is an outrageous attack on public health as well as our already-burdened habitat.

What Is The Spartina Project?
Like so many of these pesticide programs, the Spartina Project has classified something as ‘invasive’. In this case, it’s 4 species of cord grass. And, it will come as little surprise to any of my readers that once some official group has designated a plant, animal or insect ‘invasive’ their immediate next step is to start killing things. The Spartina Project was set in motion in 2000, resulting in years of incredibly toxic pesticide exposure for all of us. It is funded by CALFED Bay-Delta Program, United States Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the California State Coastal Conservancy.

Who Is Being Sprayed By The Spartina Project?
The people, wildlife, water and lands of the following counties are being coated with toxic herbicides in the Spartina project:

Alameda County
Marin County
San Francisco County
Sonoma County
Solano County
Contra Costa County
San Mateo County
Santa Clara County

View The Spray Schedule

View A Map Of The Spartina Spray Zone

What Is Being Sprayed On Us?
The primary poisons being sprayed in the 8 Bay Area counties are Imazapyr and Glyphosate.

Imazapyr is an atrocious herbicide which causes permanent damage to the eye and irritates skin. Imazapyr has been observed to cause cancer of the brain, thyroid and adrenal system and tumors in animals. When Imazapyr breaks down, it turns into several dangerous substances. One is quinolinic acid which is an irritant to the eyes, skin and respiratory system and, most disturbingly, is a neurotoxin which causes nerve lesions.

Imazapyr contaminates soil and water and remains in the habitat for years after an application. It destroys plants by attacking them at the DNA level. Imazapyr is manufactured by American Cynamid Company and sold under the labels Assault, Chopper and Arsenal. This PDF gives in depth information about this incredibly toxic herbicide to which Bay Area families are being chronically exposed.

Glyphosate is the main ingredient in the repugnant herbicide Roundup. Apart from being an eye and skin irritant, Glyphosate studies have revealed causation of tumors of the kidney, thyroid, testicles, and the adrenal cortex in animals. Glyphosate is ranked as the 3rd highest cause of herbicide/pesticide injury in the United States. Here is further information about Glyphosate.

Starting this week of July, Bay Area families will be unforgivably exposed to these incredibly dangerous chemicals via spraying from airplanes, boats and backpack applications. If you visited the map, above, you will see that our entire watershed is being contaminated with these herbicides. This is our drinking water, the drinking water of our wildlife, the substance of our ocean beaches and the rivers and marshes we walk along. Contamination of these vital life resources is totally unacceptable.

Backwards Organizations - Moronic Ideas
It is simply agonizing to learn that this irreversible damage to us and our water supply is being done by a group of neighbors. They call themselves the San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project and it makes you want to tear your hair out when you realize that any group with the word ‘Estuary’ in their name has herbicides in their hands. Spraying chemicals in water is an idiotic, backward and criminally stupid thing to do. These people should not be allowed anywhere near our ocean, rivers, bays, estuaries or marshes with their 20th century toxins and totally out-of-date concepts of environmental stewardship.

Both our bodies and our planet are made up of some 70% of water. What we do to the water we do to ourselves. What is coming out of the tap comes from the water these people are dumping carcinogenic herbicides into. When we ingest this contaminated water, we are being poisoned by the San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project. This is not about some grass growing by the waterside. This is about children drinking and breathing poisonous chemicals, this is about mother and father getting cancer, this is about brother and sister developing environmental and autoimmune diseases, this about aunt and uncle become MCS sufferers. This is about the human family being permanently damaged by the practices of chemical manufacturers and chemical-dependent organizations.

It is simply ludicrous that any 21st century group would claim to be protecting habitat by pouring poison on it. These antique methods do not fit our modern understanding of the interconnectedness of life. We need to rid the SF Bay Area of a grass so that…what? The habitat is better? What does it matter if we are Spartina-free if all of us are dropping dead of chemically-induced illnesses? What does it matter if endangered species’ watershed is grass-free if all of the endangered species are dead from chemical injury? Can’t anyone in the San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project think their outdated plan a few steps forward and realize that disease and death are the fruits of their actions?

What To Do About Spartina
Unemployment is on the rise here in California. If the grass is truly such a terrible concern to groups like the San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project, they should request a government grant to employ field workers to remove the grasses manually. Go ahead and give them boats. Let them travel the waterways harvesting the grass with shovels and machetes. Perhaps the materials could then be recycled into rugs, flooring, baskets, paper or other materials for our benefit. And no one would be poisoned. Not the workers, not our families, our wildlife or our water supply. This is the kind of plan 21st century people need to embrace. Not the ignorant, suicidal chemical practices of the past.

If you live in the SF Bay Area or have loved ones who do, please contact the people responsible for this poisoning and tell them you intend to fight their unwanted and uneducated activities:

Peggy Olofson
Project Director
prolofson@spartina.org

Maxene Spellman
Project Manager, State Coastal Conservancy
mspellman@scc.ca.gov

Erik Grijalva
Field Operations Manager
ekgrijalva@spartina.org

Drew Kerr
Assistant Field Operations Manager
dwkerr@earthlink.net

Ingrid Hogle
Monitoring Program Manager
ibhogle@spartina.org

Stephanie Ericson
Administrative Assistant
sericson@spartina.org

Phone: (510) 548-2461

Dear Readers,
If you’ve been wondering about the silence over the past week here at Vegan Reader, please let me share with you that we’ve been moving house. For our family, this isn’t just a shift from one abode to another, but a change in our life that we’ve been working toward for several years. We have finally managed to rent a country home with the land we need to begin our quest for greater sustainability.

While we don’t have enough land at this point to grow our own wheat, and our area isn’t appropriate for growing grains like rice, we aim to begin producing some 75% of our own food here. As vegans, all of our meals come from the plant kingdom, so by surrounding ourselves with an organic garden, we’re going to be able to eat well and affordably once we get things going. This is a really big deal for us!

Also of great importance is the fact that we’ve managed to escape the choke-hold of the vineyards which have robbed us of our health and peace with their constant spraying of pesticides. Doubtless, we’ll be facing other challenges in our new home, but vineyards will not be one of them. Praise be!

We are still surrounded by packing boxes and in eager search of a rototiller, but every morning, I wake up here with thankfulness and an increased commitment to continue fighting the use of pesticides in California. I will never be able to rest truly easy knowing that, at any moment, a neighbor may wreck our organic farm by spraying his conventional one.

It occurs to me that every Californian who sets about using the land to gain either food for the family or profits from the market faces a choice. It’s a money choice. If I could stand in front of you an offer you two pricey lifestyles, one of which was addiction to expensive drugs and the other of which was purchasing organic food, you’d have some thinking to do. Both routes will cost you money, but one will buy you sickness and death and the other will buy you health. It’s your money and your choice.

By the same token, the farmer can invest his money in chemicals and pesticides or he can invest it in improving his soil so that his plants are naturally healthy and disease-resistant. One route buys you toxic food, the other, healthy food. Both choices require a serious financial investment. The substance-addicted farmer can purchase that pesticide year after year, forcing his sickly plants to produce food-like objects from sick soil, but the organic farmer’s investment will build on itself as the years go by. His soil will get better and better with each passing harvest and the quality of his produce will likewise improve. His is the sustainable choice.

As you can guess, our family is going to make that sustainable choice. Our compost heap is already under way and I have spent the past few days planting bird and bee attracting plants around the perimeter of our little farm in hopes that I can encourage these helpers to come be part of our small eco-system here. We’ve got a long road ahead of us and a ton to learn, but I believe we are finally getting to take our first steps in the right direction and I hope you will celebrate this big move with us!
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Photo Credit to Manjith Kaini

Watching the small-minded men of the California Department of Food and Agriculture declare that they will ‘eradicate’ the light brown apple moth has been rather like watching a small boy take it into his head that he will move Africa 200 miles to the left. The Light Brown Apple Moth public health scandal has shone a bright light on the superfluousness and inappropriateness of the existence of an agency like the CDFA which makes its money by running around the state declaring emergencies trying to exterminate things it can’t exterminate.

Over the past 35 years, CDFA has made 247 failed attempts at eradication with 0 ’successes’. The bugs are still with us, and what has come to light is an amazing billion-dollar bureaucracy which keeps people employed pretending to do the un-doable. The LBAM fiasco is only the latest evidence of this agency’s well-funded, ill-founded business plan.

Why is eradication of insect species futile? Welcome to planet Earth.

Our planet is an insect planet. Over 95% of the species inhabiting this planet are insects. Over 95%! There are so many species, no human has ever been able to count them all, but entomologists estimate there may be as many as 10 million. I hate to break it to you, Secretary Kawamura, but you’re outnumbered.

And is it being outnumbered that drives the CDFA, the USDA and the Orkin Man to barrel forward, spraying poisons willy-nilly, hoping somehow to even up the odds? Can they not stand to think that this isn’t a human-centric world, but is, in fact, a domain of bugs? It’s a useless fight. And what would they win, if they could win?

A vacant earth, devoid of all life. Without the insects - the pre-eminent citizens of our globe - there would be nothing for any of us. How hard is it to understand that if 95% of earthling species are bug species, they must hold the majority of the honor for making our earth a green, abundant, diverse planet? You only need to watch one nature program about all of the work bugs do in the Amazon Rainforest to get it that they are essential to that gorgeous green canopy existing. Remove just one species, and the whole system might collapse.

We know about the interconnectedness of life. Poets, prophets, philosophers and scientists have all tried to depict the web of life in such a way that we would stop the senseless killing, that we would move beyond a state of perpetual, unobservant ignorance regarding the workings of the planet we inhabit. No one likes feeling powerless, but by refusing to give up control, by refusing to admit that we cannot control everything on the Earth, we are ruining our own habitat and creating problems where none existed before.

We have all grown very weary of listening to CDFA’s fear-mongering regarding the light brown apple moth which this agency has falsely depicted as a big threat. There is no big threat, and we need only return to the words echoed across the state by organic farmers who have shrugged their shoulders, saying, “a moth, so what?” In point of fact, independent scientists have pointed out that some of the species most responsible for keeping this insect at a decent population are, in fact, other insects. Just think of it, we’ve got 10 million species of bugs on our side, all of them working amongst themselves to ensure that no one species takes over. We can sit back. We don’t have to do anything but farm in a responsible way and there will be plenty of greenery for us and all the bugs to eat. Basically, we just need to get out of the way.

What we really don’t need, in our strivings for an educated view of our amazing world, is government-employed agencies like the CDFA tearing about the place declaring that the earth is really flat. These men are generations behind their neighbors in their understanding of our place in the world and it’s rather pathetic watching them try to keep their jobs by insisting they must kill things to protect us all. They’ve gotten so out of hand, they are now threatening to sicken and kill us with their poisons in order to…protect us all?

The merry-go-round logic here that never stops in a sensible place is just shameful and any other business being run this way would have been shut down long ago.

Yet, there is still a place for the CDFA, if they are willing to learn new skills. California’s chemical-dependent conventional farmers are in desperate need of help, education and training. They need aid in breaking the Monsanto stranglehold. The damage done to California soil needs to be addressed, if that’s even possible and conventional farmers need real assistance in turning their backs on a shameful history of producing poisonous food for human consumption. If CDFA could only become the CDOFA (the California Department of Organic Food and Agriculture) and make it their mission to put an end to the evil of conventional agriculture, there would be more than enough work for them to do and it would be work we’d all gladly fund.

But, if CDFA is going to stick to their dinosaur of a business model, insisting that 10 million species of bugs are bad and that we can and must control them, they have outlived their usefulness as an agency. The time has come to admit that insects are vital, that Earth is a glorious bug planet, and that we’re all in debt to the bugs for all they do to make life good for us. Anyone who isn’t prepared to admit this is on the wrong planet. I hear real estate is going real cheap on the moon.