[GPCA Updates] NEWS: Green Party officials opposing pesticide spray

[Green Party of California Updates]

      News Advisory
THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
    http://www.cagreens.org



EARTH DAY: Green Party elected supervisor, mayor,
city councilor, lead battle opposing $74 million state
plan to spray pesticides to kill Light Brown Apple Moth



BERKELEY, Ca. (April 22, 2008) – Green Party elected officials in Bay Area
cities are helping oppose a $74 million plan by the California Department
of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to conduct aerial spraying of a pheromone
pesticide to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth, scheduled to start this
summer.

Greens have authored resolutions against the spray and are participating in
lawsuits against it.  More than 30 cities have now officially opposed the
spraying that Greens describe as "a hazard to human health."

San Francisco Supervisor and Green Ross Mirkarimi – who described the
spraying as a "neutron bomb effect" – was applauded when he introduced a
resolution opposing the spraying campaign, which passed unanimously last
week at the SF Board of Supervisors meeting.

Mirkarimi's San Francisco resolution calls for a long-term study by the
state of the health and environmental impacts of the spraying already
conducted in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties in 2007 in which over 600
residents reported adverse health outcomes, and support for state
legislation requiring the consent of residents before any aerial spraying.

In Berkeley, District 4 City Councilmember Dona Spring, a Green, authoreda
resolution against the spray campaign and backed a lawsuit. "We've got
expert testimony that it would pose a hazard to human health so it's going
to be done over some dead bodies," Spring said.

And Richmond Mayor and Green Party member Gayle McLaughlin co-sponsored a
resolution against the spray for the City of Richmond, calling it
"expensive and ineffective."  In an interview she stated, "It's very clear
there are many other ways to address this."

The Green Party's philosophy of local control and grassroots democracy may
help resolve the spray controversy in favor of local public health
officials, who have expressed concern and recommend using other methods.
Public Health Directors in Alameda County and Santa Cruz County have even
posted letters to state officials calling for consideration of different
and less toxic alternatives. However, state health officials believe the
spray is safe, and are willing to put profits over public health, even over
protest from other public health officials.