{PLEASE FORWARD AND CIRCULATE}

Open Letter to Grape Growers On Forced Pesticide Spraying

Dear Sonoma County Grape Grower--
Spring is arriving. With it the glassy-winged sharpshooter may hitch-hike here on landscaping plants and threaten grapevines. We write you as farmers, mainly organic and sustainable, and as people who do not want to be sprayed without our permission. Preventing this invasive insect from establishing itself is in all of our best interests. Growers' fears of the damage that invasive species can do is legitimate.

Sonoma County's workplan to combat the sharpshooter includes the forced spraying of chemical pesticides on people's yards, even against their will. The growing No Spray movement has a single non-negotiable demand--no spraying of toxic pesticides without the permission of residents. We want to revise the plan to include a line from the Santa Cruz County Pierce's Disease workplan--"No pesticide applications will be made on private property without the consent of the residents."

Forced spraying would be a damaging wound to Sonoma County's wine industry, and it would also harm our entire agricultural community and prestige. Grape growers' credibility would be deeply eroded by forced spraying. All growers could be hurt as agriculture's image would worsen in our expanding urban environment.

Your recent pamphlet "How Do Winegrowers Earn Our Community's Support?" affirms the need to "listen and respond to our neighbors." Please listen to the thousands who do not want their homes and yards sprayed without their permission. When you support, through silence, chemical trespass on the properties of neighbors, you cross a line. How much "community support" do you expect when forced spraying produces public outrage?

Consider the following facts and questions:
l) The pesticides to be used are proven health hazards to humans and would kill or harm beneficial insects, bees, butterflies, pets, and other wildlife. The former head of the State of California Hazards Assessment Program, toxicologist Dr. Marc Lappe, writes, "Nobody's going to die from the sharpshooter. But somebody may die, particularly the most vulnerable, if exposed to pesticides." Are such health risks worth it?

2) Forced spraying would be a fundamental violation of property and civil rights and liberties. How would you feel if the police invaded your property to benefit another industry and in the process damaged or destroyed your crop?

3) Non-toxic solutions may be as effective as toxic ones. According to the California Certified Organic Farmers, "History has shown that wholesale application of broad-spectrum pesticides to control pests is not successful. A pest such as the GWSS can only be controlled with the use of a wide range of environmentally sound practices that provide for a diversity of predatory insects, diverse cropping patterns, habitat diversity, physical controls, disease resistant varieties, and naturally derived least-risk toxic pest control methods." What do you think of such solutions to protect yourselves?

4) Any organic farm sprayed would no longer be organic. Organic farming is a process that includes carefully building soil, a chemical-free business, and a reputation. Does protection of your crop warrant destruction of organic farms? Is it fair to use our tax dollars to protect your industry and destroy our livelihoods?

5) City councils in Sonoma and Sebastopol have unanimously passed resolutions against forced spraying; Windsor's vote was 3-1 and Santa Rosa's 3-3. This creates jurisdictional conflicts in any attempts to enforce spraying within these cities, which is where sharpshooters are most likely to arrive first, on landscaping plants. For example, Sonoma City Council member Larry Barnett wrote in an editorial, "Don't plan to spray my organic tomato garden without my permission, because you will have to arrest me to do it." How useful will city police be when mayors and city council members resist?

6) Thousands of people have signed No Spray petitions against forced spraying, hundreds have attended public meetings, and dozens are working on committees, including health, legal, education, direct action, media, art, and research. Instead of many organizing against forced spraying, how can we cooperate together to deal with this invasive species non-toxically?

7) Forced spraying against the fire ant on Long Island stimulated Rachel Carson to protest, write the book Silent Spring, and lead to the banning of the insecticide DDT during the early l960s. Are you willing to risk the creation of a mass movement against pesticides and the wine industry?

8) PBS-TV will air Bill Moyers' special on "Trade Secrets," an expose of the chemical industry, on March 26. This program will include research on pesticides. Will you join us and millions of others to watch this program and discuss it?

We sincerely welcome your responses to these questions.

The No Spray movement has deliberately not targeted the grape growers as the problem or as an enemy. Your fears of the sharpshooter are legitimate. No Spray's target has been the State of California and its demand for a forced spraying component in the county's workplan. When most reasonable people outside the wine industry weigh the economic threat of the sharpshooter against the violation of property and civil rights and health impacts, the choice is clear. As the matter extends beyond "the wine country mystique," the choice will be even clearer and the prestige of the wine industry will worsen.

If the Agriculture Commissioner attempts forced spraying, please consider the following:
l) Over a hundred people have attended non-violent direct action trainings and are ready to engage in civil disobedience to defend their homes and health and those of friends and neighbors. They will be joined by many other people who are not yet aware of what spraying would involve.

2) The primarily local news coverage of the No Spray movement expanded in February to the San Francisco Chronicle and in March to the Los Angeles Times and to National Public Radio. Spraying would create a national and international story with photos of organic farmers, gardeners and others being dragged to jail, resulting in a public relations disaster for the Sonoma County wine industry.

3) In addition to the moderate No Spray Action Network's non-violent resistance, forced spraying might produce other responses by individuals and groups not associated with this group.

Given various potential unintended consequences, we implore you as individuals and as an industry to cooperate with the No Spray movement. Together we could implement non-toxic controls. Though the state could use its police power to attempt to enforce spraying, the wine industry would lose in such a confrontation, even if some spraying did occur. Please consider that the social, political, environmental, and health costs of forced spraying would be far greater than any damage the sharpshooter might do.

Sebastopol Mayor Larry Robinson proposes the following in a letter to the Sonoma County Grape Growers Association, "An amendment to the work plan eliminating the forced spraying option would demonstrate the kind of flexibility that would invite great cooperation from your natural allies." If we could agree to eliminate forced spraying, let us sketch some of the initial ways we could work together to build a foundation for further collaboration:

1) Allow traps on our properties to strengthen inspections and train people to identify and report sharpshooters.
2) Teach people how to self-abate, if they chose, which could then be verified by post-abatement inspections.
3) Work to quarantine plants coming from outside--such as has been done to combat many pests--thus also strengthening the local nursery industry.

By working together on these initial efforts, we could build cooperative relations to sustain us in the future to combat this and other invasive animal and plant species. If forced spraying does occur, the silence of individual grape growers against that chemical assault will make them complicitous. We appeal to your consciences to speak up individually as soon as you can against what could be a major tragedy in our community and for the wine industry. We thank those grape growers who have already had the courage to oppose forced spraying.

Grape growers may be walking the unpopular path of the tobacco industry that attempted to ignore health hazards. By coming out against forced spraying and in support of public health you could fortify the wine industry's environmental image and prevent tarnishing your reputation.

So let's be reasonable and work together on a solution that does not involve forced spraying and the vigorous resistance that it would produce. We welcome your responses, ideas, and thoughts.

Your farming and other neighbors,

(Partial list, begun circulating March 13 p.m., over 300 signers as of March 19 a.m.)

Farmers and Agriculture Related:
Shepherd Bliss, Kokopelli Farm--Sebastopol.
Dr. Julian Blair, Steve Farm--Santa Rosa.
David Burns, Slice of Life Restaurant--Sebastopol.
Janet and Michael Costello, Costello's Farm--Bodega.
Helen Drachkovitch, Peter Reynolds, Ph.D., Nicole Sault, Ph.D.,
Fearless Foods-- Healdsburg.
Nan Fuchs, Ph.D., Editor, Women's Health Newsletter--Sebastopol.
Lee Gooding, Second Green Fertilizer--Forestville.
Isaac Kopp & Leah Weiss, Coastal Mountain Organics--Sebastopol.
Scott Mathieson, Laguna Farm--Sebastopol.
Erik Ohlsen, Designs for Nature--Sebastopol.
John & Ana Stayton, Golden Nectar Farm--Windsor.
Tommy Tolson, Red Road Farm--Santa Rosa.
Claire Hope Cummings, Hope Glen Farm--Marin County.
Hope Finkelstein, Growing Power--Milwaukee, WI.

Co-Signers:
City Council member Sam Spooner, City Council member Craig Litwin, Amy Austensen, David & Edie Bacci, J.W. Ballard, Lorraine Bazan, J. Fredric Beeler, Emile Canning, Pete Cartwright, Diana Cushing, Edmee Danan, M.D., F.P. DeVilliers, Juliana Doms, Robin Dwan, Jeff Edelheit, Marccia Gabriel, Seasun Homm, Dennis Hysom, Pam Lacoe, Marsha Sue Lustig, Marlena, Steve & David Machol, R. Miles Mendenhall, Kathy & Bill Rueve, Paul-Andre Schabracq, Sebastopol Nospray Action Affinity Group, Portia Sinnott, Eric Spillman, Carolyne Stayton, Chris Stover, Russell, Leslie & Owen Sutter, Pat Thurston, Marcia Toscher, Daniel Voight, Christine Walker, Alyce Weeks--Sebastopol.
City Council member Marsha Vas Dupre, Robin Birdfeather, Gail Dubinsky, M.D., Jack Dupre, Erin Flaherty, Blake Forrest, Christine Blant, Meredith Caplan, Armando Garcia-Davila, Joe Garcia, AnnMarie Ginella, Debra Giusti-Rose, Kate Goodson, Lynn Grant, Helen Kochenderfer, Naomi McCann, Tyler Price, Richard Rose, Chris Ruch, Doug Salzmann, Monica Schwalbenberg-Pena, R.N., Juan Vignolo--Santa Rosa.
City Council member Larry Barnett, Will Shonbrun, Anthony Solis, Tara Treasurefield--Sonoma.
Barry Bussewitz, Tom Chipperfield, Scott Hess, Cynthis Kahau, Kat Lilith, Grady Meadows, Lilli Misner, Larry Modell, Abigail Turner--Petaluma.
David Allred, Andrea Freeman, Todd Gorman, Rosemarie MacDowell, Wendy Nicholson, Olivia & Melina Parrish--Forestville.
Don Frank, April Gibson, Laura Goldman, Lynn Hamilton--Occidental
Nehora Lockhart, Jacob Martin--Healdsburg.
Scott Hunter, Ph.D., Philip & Rhonda Smyser--Graton.
Sarah, Aaron, and Paul O'Connell--Monte Rio.
Lucy Kenyon--Rohnert Park.
Pia Jensen, Attila Nagy, Sally Tomlinson--Cotati.
Kurt Erickson--Bodega.
Armando Bejarano--Guerneville.
Starhawk, Jeanie Wagenknecht--Cazadero.
Richard S. Gaines--Windsor
Lowell Downey, Rachael Frank, Rebecca Long, Valerie Wolf--Napa.
Soula Culver--Richmond.
Allen Kanner, Ph.D., Sue Supriano--Berkeley.
Melanie Undem, Pesticide Watch--San Francisco. Linda Riebel, Ph.D.--El Cerrito
Ram Sudhakar Moningi, Jayant Bondale, Ravi Chopade, Ravi Kuruganti, Sudhir Vaishnava, Manish Koshal, Vijay Chalasani--Wheaton, Ilinois.
Heather Crocke, Saratoga Springs; Pat Ladipo, Ithaca-- New York.
Rick & Lindea Kirschner--Ashland, Oregon.
Brett Sculthorp--Frenchtown, New Jersey.
Teresa Crew--Kansas City, Missouri.
(To co-sign, send name, city, & state to nospraymail@yahoo.com or P.O. Box 273, Santa Rosa, Ca 94515. If you farm or are in the food industry, include name of business.)

Back to the opening window