California Secretary of Food and Agriculture Responds to California Progress Report Article on Moth Spraying

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By A.G. Kawamura
Secretary
California Department of Food and Agriculture

I'd like to clarify a few points made in today's commentary concerning my department's plan to eradicate a ravenous pest from California. For more than a year now, in dozens of sessions and settings, I have met - in an open, transparent manner - with citizens and local officials about the moth eradication plans of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. And I remain committed to conducting this eradication program openly. Working with sound science and within the legislative process, we have established a system to protect California from invasive pests, diseases and other threats to our agriculture, environment and habitat. I look forward to working with legislators and constituents to continually improve this system.

California is no stranger to protests and political demonstrations, and we should all embrace such activities as vital to our public discourse. However, we should all collectively draw the line when misinformation is spread and causes unwarranted fear. Unfortunately, I feel that has happened in response to the campaign to eradicate the pest known as the light brown apple moth.

As we continue our efforts to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth, though, it has proven difficult to combat the steady supply of exaggerated or unsubstantiated claims that are already out there — including claims that the pheromone products used to eradicate this pest are untested and that we are all going to be guinea pigs.

I choose, instead, to focus on facts, and the fact is: A pheromone is simply a chemical signal that resembles a scent. Pheromone products have been used in the United States and around the world in agricultural and urban areas (including residential areas of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin) for well over a decade, without incident. As recently as last year, more than 3 million acres in the United States were aerially treated with a moth pheromone product to disrupt the mating of gypsy moths.