Event: Press conference and rally
to stop Light Brown Apple Moth spray

From City of Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force

April 14, 2008

It’s not safe! It’s not effective! It’s not necessary!

The general public and environmental perception is that the State has not proven that the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) eradication program is safe, effective, or necessary. In the absence of solid science from the State, the burden of research and proof has been shifted to the public.~ Nan Wishner,Chair, City of Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.—April 14, noon on the Front Steps of City Hall, the newly formed California Alliance to Stop the Spray-San Francisco (CASS-SF) and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi will hold a press conference and rally condemning the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)’s plan to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth through aerial and ground pesticide spraying. We will also rally support for a resolution presented by Supervisor Mirkarimi that condemns the spray and urges the Office of the City Attorney to take legal action against the state.

The CDFA’s light brown apple moth (LBAM) eradication program currently underway in different parts of California utilizes a biochemical pesticide spray that has not undergone formal safety testing by either federal or state agencies, that the spray has never been sprayed on humans before, that the end goal of eradication will likely not be accomplished, and of particular concern, is the lack of an effective adverse effects monitoring system for assessing the potential for adverse human health effects.

“The Success of New Zealand agriculture and horticulture professionals in controlling LBAM and other leaf-roller pests using Integrated Pest Management techniques and few or no chemical applications is a model of best IPM practices that can be readily adopted in California to control LBAM, particularly because many of the natural LBAM predators that are present in New Zealand are also present in California,” Daniel Harder, Ph.D. UC Santa Cruz and Jeff Rosendale, Grower.

Speakers list will include:

– Statements from Expert Independent Scientists;

– Bay Area Pediatrician;

– Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties Residents who experienced the first aerial sprayings;

– San Francisco Supervisors and Residents organizing against the spray.

FCJ Editor

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