Battle over apple moth heats up: Activist groups accuse state ag officials of stirring up local support for eradication.

Jun 07, 2008 (The Fresno Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- SYCP | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Activist organizations have accused the California Department of Food and Agriculture of mounting "an aggressive outreach campaign" to encourage Central Valley cities and counties to pass resolutions supporting its efforts to eradicate the light brown apple moth.

In a letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger, Stop the Spray East Bay cited a meeting in Reedley on May 14 as an example of the department's outreach efforts and what it calls misleading information presented by CDFA officials.

"There is a conscious effort to stir up fear within the Valley," said Paul Schramski with Pesticide Watch in Sacramento.

Following the CDFA's Reedley presentation, the Reedley City Council issued a resolution supporting eradication efforts that have included aerial spraying of a pheromone, which has unleashed controversy in coastal and Bay Area cities infested by the pest.

Reedley City Council Member Scott Brockett, who introduced the resolution, said 10 Valley governing bodies -- including the cities of Parlier and Orange Cove and the Fresno County Board of Supervisors -- have adopted resolutions supporting eradication efforts.

Brockett said the presentation at Reedley was not initiated by CDFA. He said he invited Secretary of Agriculture A.G. Kawamura to give a briefing on the pest.

"Clearly, you have two opposing sides on this, and for them to have this reaction, it's part of the process," Brockett said. "We choose not to agree with their opinion. We stand by what we have done."

He said the CDFA presentation was important, considering that Reedley sits in the heart of the No. 1 farming county in the nation.

Stop the Spray questioned the spraying program's "necessity, safety and likelihood of success."

In its letter, the group says the department's "quest to promote a spraying program ... will pit farming communities against urban residents."

Thirty government bodies and 81 groups and organizations have issued resolutions opposing aerial spraying for the moth.

Stop the Spray and Pesticide Watch leaders say enlisting Valley boards and cities in support of spraying is a political move aimed at countering that opposition.

Jay Van Rein, a CDFA spokesman, said the department has been working with a number of communities to provide information on the pest "both within and outside the infested region."

"Communities outside the region recognize that they, too, have a stake in this," Van Rein said.

"This is much more than a Bay Area problem. If the moth moved across the ocean, it can certainly move throughout California."

In academic circles, resistance continues to build against eradication efforts by CDFA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Three University of California at Davis entomology professors also have questioned whether the pest poses a severe threat to agriculture and whether aerial pesticides will effectively eradicate it.

The three UC Davis professors -- James R. Carey, Frank G. Zalom and Bruce D. Hammock -- last week sent a letter voicing their misgivings to Kawamura and to USDA Secretary Edward Schafer.

Earlier, authors of a report that questioned how much of a threat the moth posed included Daniel Harder, executive director of the arboretum at UC Santa Cruz.

Van Rein said eradication plans are proceeding according to recommendations made by a team of entomologists "responsible for the bulk of the world's scientific research on this pest and threat it poses."

Pete Goodell, a specialist in integrated pest management with UC Davis based at the Kearney Agricultural Center in Parlier, said leafrollers such as the light brown apple moth are outside his area of expertise.

"Will eradication work and will it come into the Central Valley? I don't know," he said.

He said key issues include whether the pest will be one that affects agricultural production statewide and -- even if it is not -- how will it affect international trade?

The reporter can be reached at dpollock@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6364.

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