Communities and Organic Growers Denounce Sharpshooter Spray in San Jose

Groups Call for Sustainable Alternatives to Pesticides

By PANNA, edited by BEC

CALIFORNIA- Butte Environmental Council (BEC) is a member of the Pesticide Action Network (PANNA), a coalition of community groups, organic farmers, public health advocates and environmental groups around the state that denounced last weeks residential pesticide spraying in San Jose to combat the glassy-winged sharpshooter and called for alternative solutions to the grapevine malady Pierce's disease.

Last Wednesday and Friday in San Jose, Santa Clara County Agricultural Commissioner Greg Van Wassenhove, with approval from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), authorized applications of the nerve toxin carbaryl to an estimated 40-50 private residences in an attempt to control the glassy-winged sharpshooter, an insect which can spread Pierce's disease

"Spraying residential backyards with a potent nerve toxin such as carbaryl is a hazard to human health, especially the health of children, the sick and the elderly," said Dr. Cindy Russell of Pesticide Alternatives of Santa Clara County. "CDFA should not support the use of any pesticides that are nerve toxins, carcinogens or acute toxins."

Van Wassenhove has decided to spray carbaryl, a nerve toxin and suspected endocrine disrupter, despite the fact that last year's applications failed to eradicate outbreaks of the insect in residential areas of Fresno and Tulare Counties. He has also authorized drenching the soil with imidacloprid, a potential groundwater contaminant.

"We want CDFA to help us find a cure for Pierce's disease that is nontoxic and compatible with organic farming," said Phil La Rocca, an organic wine grape grower from Butte County and President of California Certified Organic Farmers. "If they sprayed me or next to me and it got in my field, it would be just as economically devastating to me as the glassy-winged sharpshooter."

Farmers and researchers are using alternative solutions to control established populations of the sharpshooter in southern California because, they know they cannot control the insect with pesticides alone. They are experimenting with releases of beneficial insects, such as parasitic wasps that eat sharpshooter eggs. They are using a white clay that inhibits sharpshooter activity, and working to boost soil fertility and micronutrient levels in plants to help them resist Pierce's disease. Although CDFA has provided funding for some of these approaches, the state has not yet developed alternatives to pesticides to control isolated local outbreaks in central and northern California, which often occur in residential areas.

"We're working with a statewide coalition to get CDFA to eliminate forced spraying and find non-toxic solutions to controlling sharpshooter outbreaks in neighborhoods," said Jessica Hamburger of Pesticide Action Network. "We're also calling on CDFA to shift funding from synthetic pesticide use and genetic research to non-toxic and organic approaches to controlling the sharpshooter and Pierce's disease on farms around the state." Under CDFA's Pierce's disease. control program, counties are required to submit Pierce's disease control work- plans to the state. With the exception of Santa Cruz, all currently approved work-plans allow the county to undertake forced spraying of residential areas, organic farms and public spaces without resident, farmer ,or public consent. North State counties are no exception, so stay apprised to actions in your county by monitoring the CDPR web site at cdfa.ca.gov or by contacting BEC at 89l-6424.

Pesticide Action Network, advancing alternatives to pesticides worldwide. Visit our Web site at panna.org.

Need detailed information on pesticides? See our comprehensive database at pesticideinfo.org.

This column originally appeared in August 2001 in the Chico Examiner.