Why Birding Sonoma County Has Been Quiet Lately - LBAM Spray

April 16, 2008 on 4:54 pm | In Daily Local Birder | 9 Comments

You may have noticed that there hasn’t been much posting here lately. It’s time for me to share the reason for that. Our family’s total attention has been taken away from the normal, happy pursuits of our daily lives by an impending health and environmental crisis that is being forced on the SF Bay area against the will of local government and private citizens.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), as you may now have heard, has determined to violate the California Constitution and aerially spray a combination of never-before-tested pesticides, carcinogens, mutagens and synthetic pheromones encapsulated in particulate plastic spheres over 9 urban counties in the state, beginning June 1st of 2008.

They began these egregious actions last fall in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties. Following the spraying, more than 600 families reported severe illness from pesticide poisoning. In addition to this, the beautiful Monterey bay and the rest of the watershed were horrifically fouled with a toxic yellow foam that resulted in the death of at least 600 seabirds - probably more. Among these birds was the endangered Brown Pelican which is supposed to be protected by federal law.

Sonoma County is not currently scheduled to be sprayed from airplanes, but Marin County is, and the drift from the spray there will absolutely get into our air, our water, our land, our bodies and the bodies of our precious wild birds and animals.

Government officials have adopted a total policy of public deception, ignoring the damage that they have already done in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, referring to the pesticide as a ’safe pheromone product’ and telling us, the free people of the United States, that we have no vote as to whether we want to be sprayed or not. 7 million people will be chronically exposed to documented carcinogens unless CDFA is stopped. This violates the Nuremberg Code which was adopted by all civilized nations after WWII to prevent human beings from ever again being experimented upon without their consent. The pesticide compound has never before been tested on urban populations - only over vegetables - so this is an experiment.

There are numerous lawsuits pending against the State for their illegal actions, there are 5 bills and 1 measure being presented in a desperate attempt to protect the people and environment of California from this violation of basic rights, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his financial supporter, Ag. Secretary A.G. Kawamura continue to insist that they will begin spraying us this summer.

What is going on here?

CDFA’s excuse for their unforgivable and unconstitutional actions - they are doing this in an attempt to control an insect which is considered a negligible bug elsewhere in the world - the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM). All scientists who are not on the State’s payroll or in some way tied up with forwarding the state’s plan have come forward with proof that that the moth can be ignored and everything will be fine. It has done ZERO damage to agriculture in California despite the fact that it has likely been here for decades. It is a little leaf-roller moth that does minor cosmetic damage to leaves where it builds its home. It does not eat fruits or vegetables. It simply builds its home on leaves. It is no threat to us, our food supply, native or ornamental plants or anything else. Research into this matter will prove what I am saying here. CDFA has chosen to lie, to use scare tactics to convince the people that unless the LBAM is wiped out, it will eat everything on the planet. This is unscientific, untrue and simply ridiculous.

The actual cause of all of this is that, many years ago, this moth was incorrectly classified as a Class A pest and trade restrictions were applied to any nation where the moth lives - places like Australia and New Zealand. In order to avoid the very trade penalties that were applied by the USDA to other nations, our government is now carrying out this outrageous program to show that they are attempting to eradicate the light brown apple moth. When they talk about economic damage to agriculture…they do not mean to plants…they mean trade penalties put on farmers because of the moth. Rather than correctly reclassifying the moth, they have decided to spray 7 million people living in densely populated urban cities like San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Marin and all of the other residential areas of the 9 counties they have chosen. If they reclassified the moth, our nightmare would be over, but they have shown themselves unwilling to even consider doing this, despite the fact that Mexico and Canada have indicated that if we change our policy, they will change theirs.

One of the most outrageous things about CDFAs actions in this is that they managed to get a state of emergency declared so that they wouldn’t have to abide by laws that demand an Environmental Impact Report be conducted prior to taking any potentially-devastating action. The state of emergency enables them to skip over any safeguards for our health or the health of our environment. Their absurd claim that there isn’t time to test pesticides before spraying them on children, men and women because the moth will devour all living plants if they don’t stop it right this minute has been met with incredible scorn in the UC scientific communities. As the UC Scientists say, there is no emergency. The moth has been here for decades. There is no need to rush.

Unfortunately, our governor receives political donations both from the Ag. secretary, Kawamura, and the public has been especially aghast to discover that the governor has also received more than $140,000 in contributions from the maker of the pesticide spray - Stewart Resnick of Suterra, LLC. It is a case of dire political corruption, and the end results of the billions of dollar of profits these men have come to together to make will be the pesticide poisoning of at least 7 million Californians, the toxification of our bays, rivers and other water sources, the end of organic agriculture in the state and the death of untold wildlife.

If this sounds like a crazy conspiracy to you, please, begin to investigate the matter yourself. All of the major Bay Area and Monterey Area newspapers and TV stations are covering this public health crisis and mayors, city council members, supervisors, senators and representatives are engaged in a desperate battle to protect us and our lands from aerial spraying without consent.

The spraying will take place every 30 days, 9 months out of the year, for up to 10 or more years. This will results in chronic, longterm and extremely dangerous exposure to documented carcinogens and mutagens and particulate pollution (as deemed by the American Lung Association) on a scale that has never been seen before in the world. Everyone living in the spray zone will be subjected to this and groups that are expected to be most gravely harmed are children, pregnant women, women in general, the elderly and citizens who have chronic diseases or are attempting to fight off diseases like cancer. One of the xenochemicals in the spray is a known cause of breast cancer. Others are linked to reproductive harm. Others are endocrine disruptors. Because of this terrible danger, a refugee problem is emerging in California, as residents sell their homes and attempt to flee to safety. In other words, mayhem has begun here and it will only get worse if the densely populated Bay Area is sprayed.

I have personally spoken to many Monterey Bay region residents who were made terribly ill by the spraying. One father’s healthy little baby became delirious with eyes rolling into the back of his head and went into respiratory failure. The baby is now being kept breathing by means of asthma medication but the state is refusing to acknowledge this family or any of the hundreds of others who were damaged by pesticide exposure.

Because the pesticide is designed to release slowly into the air over a 30-90 day period each time it is sprayed, there will be no way to leave the area and come back when all is clear. There will be no all clear. The air will be full of the toxic matter permanently, year round, for years to come.

As a woman who has spent her whole adult life eating organic food and cherishing wildlife and the natural environment, my whole way of life has been threatened with destruction by CDFA and the USDA. Since I found out about the spraying, my world has been turned upside down, and I have been researching, making contacts with people and working to educate the community about this terrible crisis.

And that is why Birding Sonoma County has been quiet. If there is any hope of coming to a time again when we can all enjoy a walk in our woods, breathing clean air, taking joy in the wild birds and animals that make our lives so rich, we have to work now to stop this illegal and immoral poisoning of California.

And, I want to add to this that I hope no Sonoma County resident will be lulled into a false sense of security because we are not currently on the spray map. The USDA has announced that it intends to hunt this moth across the nation, and they will not hesitate to begin aerial spraying wherever they find it. Rather than reclassify the moth, they will do this to our beautiful country because it is profitable for them.

What this means is that, wherever you live in the United States, I urge you to join the valiant efforts to stop this terrible violation of our U.S. Constitution which grants us an inalienable right to safety. If you deeply value our nation’s tenets of freedom, it is the patriotic thing to do to fight these greed-driven men. If you care for your family’s health, it is the loving thing to do to fight this spraying of documented poisons. If you value our wild life and environment, it is the just thing to do to begin working to protect the voiceless animals and lands. We need every single one of you in this fight. Please, get educated now.

Visit:
VeganReader.com

LBAMspray.com

StoptheSpray.org

California Alliance to Stop the Spray

HopeforTruth.com

Watch YouTube Videos Documenting the LBAM Spray Health Crisis HERE

You can also start reading Bay Area newspapers or Google phrases like ‘LBAM Spray’, ‘LBAM Aerial Spray’ or ‘Health effects of LBAM spray’.

I want you to be able to investigate this for yourself. I realize, the reality of this situation is so horrific, it sounds like a bad movie or a crazy conspiracy theory. I’m not a fan of either one of those things. As my readers know by now, I am a very peaceful and simple person who loves the natural beauty of our world. But now, political corruption and corporate greed are threatening to ruin these best treasures - health, life and environment - for all of us. So, for now, I am putting down my binoculars, my paint brush, my personal happiness and I am giving my heart to this battle in hopes of finding a time of peace and joy in the future.

Please, join me in this crucial moment.