Victory for Spray Foes!

June 20, 2008

More apologies to Eric Carle…

We hear the sound of successful grassroots activism! The California Department of Food and Agriculture has reversed its position on spraying nine highly urbanized coastal counties Northern California to control the Light Brown Apple Moth. The CDFA has said that in January 2009 they will release sterile moths to control the moths (why didn’t they try that FIRST?) and the state is proposing to use the insecticide permethrin (which is toxic to honey bees, aquatic life, and cats) on thousands of telephone poles, as well as conduct ground-based spray treatments with pheromones and “other” ingredients. Activists are questioning the need for the moths to be controlled at all since they have been here for 30 years without crop loss.We need to make sure that these ground methods won’t hurt us, our animals, or honey bees.

Just because the spraying has been stopped thanks to Frank Egger and the folks over at STOPTHESPRAYMARIN.ORG have done a great job in the North Bay and need some financial contributions for all the expenses they have incured on our behalf.