Nan Wishner (Chair of Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force)
- This program is not Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as is being stated
- With IPM, the burden of proof is on the proponent - here the burden of proof is being shifted to the people
- First option should always be to ask if action is even required - but the CDFA has chosen aerial spraying as a first resort where it should be a last resort
- According to CDFA documents, this is the first instance of this product being used over urban populations
- The IPM method is not to immediately resort to aerial sprayings, especially since reports suggest that the LBAM has been in the state for a decade with no CDFA reports of crop damage
- We have large populations of other leaf-rolling moths that are kept in check by natural predators
- Global warming and global trade will invariably bring new pests -- we cannot continue to spray for each one -- we have to fundamentally change the approach to least toxic control
- CheckMate is manufactured by Suterra, and has made major campaign contributions to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Robert Lieber - Mayor of Albany, California
- Lieber believes that California growers may be behind the push to eradicate this pest -- as a way to create a trade issue with imports from Australia and New Zealand
- The program is based on "lies, deception and double speak"
- These products have never been sprayed over large populations and Lieber has not seen the "good science" the CDFA claims to have
- Lieber stated that we should not allow our children, our families, our cats and dogs, our birds, our environment to a big experiment
- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is the individual who has to stop the spraying
- Talk to your Congressional representative and tell them not to fund this program
- Lieber wants to see a move toward IPM programs and closed with "I do not want to get sprayed -- I might have to move"
John Russo - Stop the Spray
- Russo showed reams of paper representing 8700 people and comments in opposition to the spraying
- Stated that if our elected officials will not stop this aerial spraying program, then we as citizens have to stop it
- Russo quoted from the California State Constitution:
All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.
- He believes we have the constitutional grounds to stop the spraying
- There is hope in that legislators are starting to listen and citizens need to continue pressing for what they want
- Russo mentioned four pieces of California legislation now being considered on the subject of the spraying
Editor's note: The Vacaville Reported published a summary of this legislation on February 28, 2008