Who benefits from “Death to the Apple Moth?”
Citizen Opinion by Yannick A. Phillips
Residents of Sonoma may have heard about the Light Brown Apple Moth eradication program, a complicated project initiated by the United States Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The program attempts to exterminate a moth native to Australia; the insect was officially detected in California a few years back.
This leads, oddly, to the ancient Romans – always remarkably modern in their thinking. The wise and cynical Roman orator Cicero first articulated the concept of, “Cui bono?” Who benefits?
It’s not as if farmers have pleaded with their extension agents and agricultural commissioners saying, “Oh, save us from Light Brown Apple Moth, the scourge of our vineyards and fields!” Or backyard and community gardeners have been begging their city council members for help, “Our fruits, vegetables, flowers, and shrubs will be devastated. We need you to do something!” In fact it’s the opposite: some food banks are declining produce donations because of restrictions imposed by Light Brown Apple Moth-program quarantines.
Parents haven’t requested their children be exposed to pesticides whose toxicity is known and to other chemicals whose provenance and toxicity are unknown. Pet owners, birders, and anglers haven’t asked that dogs, cats, birds, and fish be exposed to substances that might sicken or kill them. The chronically ill and those with respiratory issues haven’t demanded additional stressors on their bodies.
Realtors don’t want the possible diminution of property values that a Light Brown Apple Moth treatment zone implies. Light Brown Apple Moth treatment zones extend over much of California, including cities and suburbs. People protective of property rights don’t like that Light Brown Apple Moth eradication measures will be forcibly enacted on private property.
Taxpayers aren’t thrilled that the Light Brown Apple Moth eradication program wasted about $100 million in 2008, and is on track to spend millions more in 2009 and beyond.
All this for a program that isn’t safe, necessary, or effective.
Many people in Northern and Central California have been working since 2007 to end this program. These Light Brown Apple Moth advocates feel the moth presents as a crop-quality issue that individual growers can manage without government intervention.
Light Brown Apple Moth blends in ecologically with its 85 California leafroller cousins. It is largely preyed upon by birds, spiders, and bats, and by wasps that parasitize it.
Light Brown Apple Moth has caused no documented damage to wild or cultivated plants in California, even though as of Sept. 24 2009, 174,809 of them have been trapped in California. These numbers make eradication impossible even if Light Brown Apple Moth actually were a voracious plant predator.
As invasive species go, Light Brown Apple Moth is a wimp – though it has caused a terrible ruckus in the world of international agricultural trade policy and domestic phytosanitary quarantines.
One unexpected beneficiary of the Light Brown Apple Moth eradication program are the belief systems of those who believe government is staffed by the incompetent, the lying, or the corrupt. Some of these people have been confirmed in their belief that government exists solely to benefit big-business without concern for human health and the environment. For others, in the actions of USDA and California Department of Food and Agriculture and many of California’s elected officials, they have found confirmation that government can’t do anything right.
Who else benefits?
The only other obvious beneficiaries are the California Department of Food and Agriculture staffers who get to participate in a make-work program and the manufacturers, laboratories, and public relations firms who contract with California Department of Food and Agriculture to carry out this exercise in futility.
It should be so easy for California elected officials to be on the right side of this issue. On one side is massive citizen dissent and outrage; legal actions past and pending; and opposition from farmers, growers, property owners, park rangers, city attorneys, water-quality experts, county supervisors, city council people, a California Coastal Commissioner, scientists not in the pay of the California Department of Food and Agriculture or the USDA, health professionals, parents, chefs, small-business owners, and environmentalists. On the other side is – well, it’s not clear who or what is on the other side. Even the National Academy of Science says there is no sound science behind the program.
So after more than two years of protests, formal hearings, meetings with politicians, town halls, and research into trade policy and the life-cycle of Light Brown Apple Moth – no one advocating the program’s end has heard an honest explanation of who benefits from trying to exterminate the Light Brown Apple Moth. Perhaps California elected officials can provide an explanation.
Yannick A. Phillips, a Sonoma mother of four and a third-generation Californian, has grandparents who farmed citrus in the San Diego area. She is currently working on the Light Brown Apple Moth issue with farmers, grape growers, nurseries, small businesses, mothers’ groups, and elected officials all over California.
Thanks to dog rescuers
Editor: I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the two wonderful hikers who helped me carry my dog, Sitka, out of the Sonoma Regional Park on Sept. 30 after she was bitten by a rattlesnake. I remember repeating their names in hope I could track them down later … Jeff and Lynn? The drama has washed that away. Still, I’m grateful for their unquestioning willingness to help me get Sitka to the car from the middle of the park. I was reminded again of what a fabulous community we live in, where lending a hand and performing an act of kindness is second nature.
Sitka is fine now. We’ve yet to venture back into the park, but we’ll get there eventually. No blame on the snake, either: our encounter was unfortunate, but we realize we share this beautiful landscape with rattlers, and they are as crucial to the web of life as we are. In some ways the encounter and aftermath have resulted in a greater understanding of the creatures and less fear, as we now have witnessed first-hand what a bite can do and how it can be treated.
Again, thanks to the tag-team carriers.
Tracy Salcedo-Chourre
Sonoma
Why not green?
Editor: Though our local chamber of commerce has made some green efforts, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is aggressively opposing global warming legislation now being considered in Congress, even using grossly misleading information to incite fear among voters in key states. PG&E (California), PNM (New Mexico) and Exelon (Chicago), three major utility companies, and Apple Computer, have resigned their membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Nike has resigned from its board, each because of the chambers’ position on climate change policy.
To further impress the U.S. Chamber leadership that there is a broad and strongly held business opposition to their viewpoint, please send a letter to the CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce via the NewVoiceOfBusiness.org. It will automatically be sent to Tom Donohue, CEO of U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and a copy of it will also be sent to your two U.S. Senators. On this site, you will also find information about the misinformation campaign, which the chamber is conducting.
Please take action for our planet!
Leslie Sheridan
Sonoma
Return serve
Editor: I missed Ron Pfleger’s Oct. 9 letter regarding the high school tennis courts, but thankfully caught Michael Thomas’s response. I think it is very important to take a look at this from the other side and understand more of the facts. It’s unclear which coach Mr. Pfleger spoke with regarding freshman participation in tennis this year. I can agree that no freshman girls tried out for the team, but that is because all six of them were accepted. They started out very inexperienced and have come a long way. I was there a few weeks ago for a home game against Casa Grande. I arrived a bit early just as Coach Barney was finishing cleaning up the mess that vandals left the night before. They removed all the nets hanging from the fencing, marked up all the courts with their bikes and skateboards, not to mention the theft of the ball machine. Take note that the ball machine was not school property. Barney contributed it to the team. Now it’s gone along with some rackets. The courts are there for the children participating in tennis at school. I don’t hear anyone complaining that we don’t have access to the high school library or weight rooms.
Lynda Robles
Sonoma