Light Brown Apple Moth

Please check out the Preview of our updated LBAM page, for photos, toxicology, and locations of all pesticide applications,
and a comprehensive analysis of the CDFA's LBAM program.
None of the links in the preview work yet, but they will be fully functioning in mid to late April.
Please contact us if you need specific links before then for your own research and organizing.
Preview of Updated Page as Word Document
Organic Farmers, Healthcare Workers, Organized Labor, Direct Action and other Activists, the Chemically-Injured, and other Concerned People contact us to get on our occasional announcement list
NO COMPROMISING OUR HEALTH!
Aerial, truck, tractor and backpack spraying all spew out pesticides which kill. Or there's painting Permethrin on utility poles or twist ties full of undisclosed ingredients, along with Btk, which is implicated in gastro-intestinal issues and lacks proper study, used in ground treatments, or Spinosad, which is toxic to honeybees, and much else. JUST SAY NO TO POISONS!
Upcoming Events
Sunday,
May 11 - 7pm
"True Accounts of the LBAM Spraying"
and other short films
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Followed by discussion about all aspects of the LBAM eradication program and possible actions to take to stop it.
East
Bay Pesticide Alert/Don't Spray California
co-sponsored by the Social Justice Committee of Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian
Universalists
Berkeley Fellowship of Universal Unitarians Hall
1924 Cedar Street (at Bonita Avenue), Berkeley, CA 94709
Thursday,
June 5 - 7-9pm
Community Brainstorm about the CDFA's LBAM program
with Dr. Daniel Harder and others
Berkeley Fellowship of Universal Unitarians Hall, 1924 Cedar Street (at Bonita
Avenue), Berkeley, CA 94709
Recent Events
Wednesday,
April 23 - 12-2pm
LBAM Teach-in with Michael Parenti, Maxina Ventura, Nan Wishner, Tara Levy,
and others
Berkeley Community College, 2050 Center Street, Berkeley, CA 94704
Flyer
(1 Mb Acrobat)
Saturday,
April 19 - 11am-5pm
Non-Violent Direct Action Training
200 Washington Street #107, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Who's Afraid of the Light Brown Apple Moth?
Video
of EBPA-sponsored info meeting in San Leandro on LBAM spraying (February
2008)
Galvanize Productions
A native of Australia and
first discovered in Northern California in 2006, the Light Brown Apple Moth
is the latest insect targeted for “eradication” by
the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Under an emergency decree,
aerial spraying began in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in the fall of
2007. Over 600 people reported getting sick from the synthetic “pheromone” laced
pesticide that was used.
In Summer 2008 this program will be expanded to the urban counties of the Bay
Area, subjecting some 2,000,000 people to an untested pesticide.
According to Albany, California Mayor Robert Lieber:
"California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary Kawamura’s
recent emergency declaration enabling the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) aerial
pesticide spraying of the Bay Area relies on blatant misrepresentations of
the truth, fear-mongering and outright lies. The spray program he defends imperils
California’s families, children, pets, and the environment, based on
no real science and no solid facts."(www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/03/aerial_spraying.html)
This compelling video from a community meeting in San Leandro, California goes
into the science, the perspective of organic agriculture and personal experience
with pesticide exposure.
A DVD is available from www.galvanize.tv.

Map of proposed spraying (300+Kb image)
LINKS
Metro
Santa Cruz - What Would Larry, Moe and Curly Do?
Groups opposing spraying
dontspraycalifornia.org
also known as www.eastbaypesticidealert.org
For general pesticides information; LBAM
information; Glassy-winged
Sharpshooter statewide pesticides program information; Pesticide drift
photos;
Bay Area pesticides information
Stop
the Spray
to sign the petition
Vegan Reader
paticipate in the blog
Yahoo
Group To Organize
to discuss and organize actions, share resources, researc and support
Hope
For Truth
for more toxicology and to find illness report forms
California Alliance to Stop
the Spray
opposing the treatment of residential communities with pesticides
LBAMSpray.com
a good archive for some of the LBAM organizing
Groups doing the spraying
CDFA/US
Department of Agricultural Powerpoint presentation on Light Brown Apple
Moth Program
(open read
only in PowerPoint)
Suterra
"the leader in biorational pesticides", maker of CheckMate
Suterra's
letter to Indymedia
Demands that information about a "secret" ingredient in the CheckMate
OLR-F mating disruption pheromone be removed from Indybay site
traditional business - thirty years of experience spraying pesticides (night-time photo of airplane from company website)


IT'S NOT JUST AERIAL SPRAYING
factsheet - ground spraying coming March 2008
According to CDFA press releases, March 4th marks the beginning of chemical "twist ties" to be hung from "trees, plants and fences."

In aerial spray zones, Permethrin will be applied to utility poles to a minimum if 3,000 utility poles and trees per square mile.
ABOUT THE PESTICIDES
USDA
quarantine exemption request (PDF file)
Request to use a new chemical -- (E,E)-9,11-Tetradecadien 1-yl Acetate --which
has
not
been
registered
by
the
EPA. Emergency precludes the usual public comment.
Isomate LBAM-Plus - Material Safety Data Sheet for chemical in twist-ties. Cross-reference with Checkmate used in aerial spray.
Most recent toxicological profile for Permethrin (MS Word)
Pheromone Search - 942 Monterey County Moths (by Lancelot Houston, warning: 24 page PDF )
Type
of spray being proposed is not simple BT but BTK.
No
Spray Zone overview of BTK
NCAP toxic profile
for BTK (acrobat file)
For
toxicology of one of the formulations already used in this program:
Checkmate from LBAMspray.com
Declaration of Richard Philp, toxicology professor, on Checkmate
Most recent toxicological profile for Checkmate (MS Word)
Your constitutional rights re: pesticide application (MS Word)
THE
DAY THE DOCTORS FINALLY READ OXICOLOGICAL PROFILES OF PESTICIDES (a dream)
Maxina Ventura's response to the Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment's
recent disrespectful report which suggests that all the sickness after Monterey
and Santa Cruz sprayings was not pesticide poisoning.
If sickened by "treatments" go to hopefortruth.com look under Health Effects and find pesticide forms.
WHERE SPRAYING IS SLATED TO OCCUR - CONTACTS
List of areas to be pesticided and contacts for local repersentatives
Don't Spray California's Maxina Ventura's talk with CDFA rep 2/08/08
All
email contacts from lists above
(most email programs allow you to send only a limited number at one time)
RESOURCES
Some resources to print out and distribute or use in organizing: all attached as documents
Flyer to take to your neighbors, post on bulletin boards, put up in libraries, and table with:
Our basic overview flyer - one per page
Our basic overview flyer - two per page
Change the city names and such details to match your locale, and you can reuse this article for reprinting in local newspapers, group newsletters and to send to friends. Simply credit to Maxina Ventura or Don't Spray California, www.dontspraycalifornia.org:
Take this resolution to your municipality, union, schoolboard, organization, homeowners associations, or other entity, and get it passed. Let us know about any resolutions passed so that we can get information up on our site:
Don't Spray California general resolution
This resolution was instrumental in helping AFSME Local 2428, workers at the East Bay Regional Park District, craft their own resolution specific to their union's needs
AFSCME Local 2428 Resolution in opposition of the LBAM eradication program
The East Bay Regional Park District Board followed suit. While their original resolution proposal was focused on aerial spraying alone, the board agreed with us that all toxic methods must be opposed, and made a last minute change, changing the phrase "chemical compound" to "chemical program".
East Bay Regional Park District Board Resolution
RESOLUTIONS AND OFFICIAL LETTERS
Albany
The city of Albany's mayor, a nurse, has vigorously opposed the toxics program.
Albany mayor's statement to assembly committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials
Berkeley
The city of Berkeley's draft resolution.
Letter from Mayor, town of Fairfax
Oakland
The city of Oakland's draft resolution (Public Safety Committee) recognizes
the effects on all people, including homeless people, and on all living
things.
City
of Santa Cruz
The city of Santa Cruz is suing CDFA and this is their resolution around
the program.
Declaration of Richard Philp, toxicology professor, for county of Santa Cruz suit
City of Seaside (11 page PDF)
LEGISLATION
Bay Area Legislators Introduce Bills to Tackle Light Brown Apple Moth
LAWSUITS
City of Santa Cruz Lawsuit (PDF file - 184 pages)
Helping
Our Peninsula's Environment (Monterey) Lawsuit (PDF file - 7 pages).
HOPE
initiated one of the four lawsuits filed so
far against
the program.
Williams, et al. v. CDFA, USDA, et al.
MEETINGS REGARDING LBAM
Calendar of upcoming meetings regarding the LBAM
Berkeley
Peace and Justice Resolution being heard Monday 4/7
Peace and Justice Commission
North Berkeley Senior Center
1901 Hearst St. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way
will be heard approximately 8 pm
EAST BAY PESTICIDE ALERT / DON’T SPRAY CALIFORNIA PRESENTS:
Who’s Afraid of the Light Brown Apple Moth?
Thursday,
April 10, 2008 - 7-9pm
Ecology Center
2530 San Pablo Ave (near Dwight Way), Berkeley, California
Will the light brown apple moth prove to be the invasive threat to California
agriculture, that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
claims it to be, or have damages to New Zealand agriculture been grossly
exaggerated?
Should the vulnerabilities created by chemically dependent mono-cropping and
other conventional agricultural practices be an excuse for eradication projects
that put at risk public and environmental health?
What will happen to local organics if the California Department of Food and
Agriculture (CDFA) is allowed to douse the California Peninsula and San Francisco
Bay Area with pesticides months in and months out for years to come?
Talk with
Sunday, February 24, 2008
1:30-3:30pm
Zocalo Coffeehouse, a Family-welcoming Community Spot
645 Bancroft Ave. @ Dutton
San Leandro
Presentations will include:
Background of the program, some pesticide toxicology specifics, and legal
update, by the founder of StoptheSpray.org
A look at the cyclical nature of these kinds of programs, comparing
to the Glassy-winged Sharpshooter and Mosquito Abatement programs as
well
as life
lived within one of Sonoma’s devastating cancer clusters, by the
founder of East Bay Pesticide Alert.org. Tidbits about Caltrans spraying,
too
Description by one of the people living in zone directly sprayed who was
sickened, as were at least hundreds who reported, to speak about what it
was to live
through the sprayings, the health problems, being turned away by doctors
and turned out by the Public Health Department, and what it is like to live
on
edge waiting for the next sign of a plane coming to spray, Ag. people coming
to tie toxic strips onto the branches of the trees your kids climb, or workers
painting utility poles with Permethrin mixed with pheromones
We also plan a talk by one of the organic farmers whose farms were sprayed.
What are they to do? While CDFA says they still can label organic, this
destroys the meaning of the label. So who stands for them, let alone the
rest of us
who depend on organics for our families’ health? How do we come together
to support them, and us?
Info: 510-895-2312
email:
beneficialbug@netzero.net
EIR (ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT), OVERSIGHTS AND ALTERNATIVES
CDFA's Notice of Preparation of EIR
Not
being addressed are effects on San Quentin prisoners and prisoners at
all jails and juvi lockups and psychiatric wards, let alone hospitals,
as well as the treesitters at the UC campus and homeless people around
the Bay Area, all already under much physical distress.
indymedia
story
Some alternatives to toxic pesticides