LBAM-A-Gram for Pelosi
Mar 31, 2009, by | Read more: News
Local activists send California care package in effort to keep attention on reclassification of pest
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got an unexpected surprise from our friends at Stop the Spray when 15 pounds of Santa Cruz County apples and wildflowers showed up at her office on March 17. Each of the 20 apples and 70 flowers was meant to represent $1 million spent by the California Department of Agriculture last year in its effort to try and eradicate the light brown apple moth. Along with the package came letters from STS and other local environmental groups like Play Not Spray and Citizens for Health that urged her to help reclassify the LBAM from a "high risk" to a "low risk" pest and end the two-year quarantine of organic products from Bay Area farms.
"This is somewhat of a piece of political theater, but we hope it's effective nonetheless," said STS coordinator Paulina Borsook. "Since the classification is a federal decision we decided to attack it at a federal level."
Drew Hammill, spokesperson for Speaker Pelosi, refused to comment, instead referring to a letter Pelosi sent to Gov. Schwarzenegger in May 2008 in which she asked for more information on the moth’s potential dangers and on the effects of the controversial pheromone spray eradication plan. Hammill’s careful dodging of an updated response wasn't surprising to Borsook, who said the aide sent the same outdated letter to her. Borsook is also waiting on a response from Rep. Sam Farr, who submitted the official request to reclassify the insect's threat in September 2008.
"I understand they don't want to commit to anything," Borsook said. "We're just trying to keep the issue fresh in their minds."
So far, Borsook has not come home to find a $1,000 fine from the U.S. Department of Agriculture waiting for her in her mailbox—even though the package of Central Coast goodies arrived in Washington without the legally required USDA certificate of inspection and in violation of the eight-county LBAM quarantine. This act of “civil disobedience” was not unintentional, Borsook said, as she hoped to show that Bay Area fruits and flowers are “beautiful and delicious.”Chris Mittelstaedt, owner an organic fruit delivery service in San Francisco, wrote a separate letter that went along with the fruit in which he railed against this “unjust quarantine.”
“I believe that the CDFA, by having such a strict quarantine, is creating accidental trade policy and hurting California growers,” he said, echoing statements in his letter. “The LBAM comes from New Zealand—they’re everywhere there. And it’s perfectly conceivable that a farmer there can have his apples in a grocery store here much faster than a local grower can get them across the state. I find it offensive.”
Borsook said she and the rest of the STS folks will continue to hound the pols in Washington and that sending apples and flowers is a pretty nice way to remind them that the issue persists.
“What are they going to do, haul me off to jail for sending someone some flowers?” she said, perhaps a little nervously. “I just hope she got to eat some of the apples, at least.” - Curtis Cartier
