CEQA REVIEW [an ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT] on the CDFA
PIERCE’S DISEASE-GLASSY-WINGED SHARPSHOOTER PROGRAM
What does this mean? The California Department of
Agriculture will produce a full Environmental Impact Report that
* identifies all potential adverse impacts of pesticide
spray and bio-engineering;
* develops measures to reduce thosd impacts to a level of
“insignificance”;
* studies alternatives
This is a prime opportunity to oppose urban and residential
pesticide spray; bio-engineered grapes, insects and bacteria; and promote and
protect alternatives like natural biological control,sensible land use practices
and organic agriculture.
The Wineries will be there. You should be too!
***Environmental Impact Report on the GWSS/ Pierce’s
Disease Program***
We did it! We fought for CEQA [California Environmental
Quality Act] review and we got it! The California Department of Food and
Agriculture (CDFA) is producing an Environmental Impact Report [EIR] on the
Pierce’s Disease, Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter control program. This is our
opportunity to give input on Alternatives to Pesticides and Bio-engineering and
to ask for epidemiological studies. We need to know the extent of harmful
effects of pesticides and reveal to each other, to CDFA and the general public
how much information we have on viable alternatives.
CEQA says that we must not damage human health or the
environment, must stop toxic runoff into our lakes and rivers, stop further
threat to pollinators, beneficial insects and microbes [upon which healthy,
productive agriculture depends].We must cause no further degradation and even
take steps to reverse any mess we might already have made.
The process? There will be four “Scoping Sessions”
around the state. The Department of Agriculture will take comments at the
sessions on what we think the scope of the study should include, for example:
*other
causes of Pierce’s disease outbreak like: irrigation with chlorinated water;
planting on poor soils on eroded slopes; selling, distributing and planting
already infected vines; infected vines becoming a reservoir for pathogens that
can be picked up by presently uninfected insects;
*
potential adverse impacts of any program under consideration, like: harming the
general public and especially the immune-impaired with broad-spectrum
pesticides; killing off beneficial insects and predators; disrupting biological
control programs already established by organic farmers, the citrus industry and
backyard gardeners; contaminating native species and cultivated crops with
bio-engineered pollen with unintended frankenstinian consequences.
And the EIR must review alternatives to the pesticide spray
plan, like biological control -- insects controlling insects, use of soil
amendments, planting resistant varietals, and...What’s your idea?.
Scoping Sessions for GWSS EIR:
| Northern California
|
Coastal California |
April 10, 6-9pm
Napa Valley Expo, Riesling Hall
575 Third Street
Napa, Ca
|
April 12, 6:30 - 9pm
San Luis Obispo Vets Hall
801 Grand Ave.
San Luis Obispo |
| Southern California |
Central California |
April 17, 6:30-8pm
County Administrative Center
4080 Lemon St., Room 13
Riverside, CA
|
April 17, 6:30-8pm
Tulare County Agriculture Dept.
2500 Burrell Ave.
Visalia, CA |
This is a great opportunity to promote SUSTAINABLE land
use. Everything is on the table. We need your thoughts.
If you can’t make it
in person, send written comment to: Ms. Susan Stratton, Real Estate Services
Division, Department of General Services, State of California, 1102 Q Street,
Suite 5100, Sacramento, CA 95814 --
DEADLINE APRIL 23rd!! -- for more info call Susan Stratton AT CDFA: 916 323-6951
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