Farmers and environmentalists united, say: LBAM not a threat

For Immediate Release: February 4, 2008

Farmers and environmentalists united, say: LBAM not a threat

Farming and environmental groups push for reclassfication of the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM)

San Francisco, CA. (February 4, 2008) The Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) will not devastate California crops, gardens or natural resources: this is the shared message of farmers and environmentalists –who are often perceived as being on opposite sides of the LBAM issue.

In a letter addressed to the new Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) and 16 co-signers state: “There is no evidence to suggest that LBAM has yet had or has the potential to have a detrimental impact on either agricultural crops or native flora and forests in California.”

The letter states further: “The federally imposed international LBAM quarantine and associated eradication measures already implemented have themselves posed human health and environmental hazards and have created significant and unnecessary economic hardship for growers.”

Among the signers of the letter are California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR) and several community groups that sprang up last year in opposition to aerial pesticide spraying for LBAM.These environmental and farming groups join in a growing movement calling on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reclassify LBAM, a moth originally from Australia which has been the subject of much controversy in California.

LBAM classification matters because the class A status of the moth sparked a multimillion-dollar eradication program that included aerial spraying of pesticides over neighborhoods in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. After the spraying, more than 600 residents filed health complaints and reported hundreds of dead seabirds. This program was a special earmark in the Bush administration's final budget.

Says Isabelle Jenniches of Stop the Spray: “This whole program has to stop. Here is our chance to save money and do the right thing at the same time. It is hard to fathom how this unnecessary, expensive and harmful program can continue in a time of financial crisis.”

Today’s letter argues that the classification of LBAM should be downgraded from class A (major pest worthy of quarantine) to class C (minor pest) and quotes extensively from a petition submitted to the USDA by United States congressman Sam Farr (D - Carmel) in September 2008.

Farr is joined in questioning the status of the moth by California assemblymembers Jared Huffman (D – San Rafael) and Dave Jones (D – Sacramento); Senator Mark Leno (D – San Francisco), as well as former Senator Migden (D – San Francisco) and former Assemblymember John Laird (D -Santa Cruz). Other elected officials are expected to sign on to this request as the issue intensifies. The USDA announced recently that the petition is being seriously considered and that a review is to be released this spring.

"State and federal agriculture agencies put the cart before the horse," says Paul Schramski Towers, State Director of Pesticide Watch Education Fund. "Rather than identifying and publicizing the lack of a threat posed by the apple moth, the agencies rushed to declare an emergency. Reclassification puts the moth in its place."

An executive summary of the petition can be found in the Documents section
of the http://www.stopthespray.org website.

The letter calling for reclassification can be downloaded at http://www.stopthespray.org/lbam/

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About the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) eradication program

The Light-brown Apple Moth (LBAM) was officially discovered in California in 2007 although it may have been in the state for up to 30 years. The California Department of Agriculture (CDFA) declared an administrative emergency, established quarantine zones, and launched a multi-million dollar eradication program. Aerial pesticide sprayings in the Monterey Bay area in fall 2007 resulted in reports of environmental damage and more than 600 health complaints. The pesticide spray posed a severe
respiratory hazard and contained ingredients with established carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reproductive toxicities. CDFA announced on June 19, 2008, that it would no longer aerially spray urban areas for LBAM, but the eradication program, which proposes toxic ground treatments, continues.

About Stop The Spray

Stop The Spray (http://www.stopthespray.org) is a grass-roots movement in response to the aerial sprayings on the Monterey Peninsula. Stop The Spray has organizations throughout the entire San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas, extending from Sonoma through Marin, San Francisco, the East Bay, and south to San Mateo county, Santa Cruz and Monterey.