Action Items

ACTION ALERT: CALIFORNIA, STOP THE SPRAY!

Tens of thousands of California residents are being sprayed with potentially harmful and partially undisclosed chemicals. The aerial spraying of pesticide that was forced on Monterey and Santa Cruz a few months ago, is scheduled to continue there, and to come to the entire Bay Area. Individual municipalities have no power to stop this, because their power is superseded by the State's declaration of a state of emergency, which they did to avoid having to conduct an Environmental Impact Review. This supposed "emergency" is the light brown apple moth (LBAM), but like all toxic dumping by the agriculture industry, it's really about industry profits. The LBAM is not a threat to people's health, but the spraying is.

The "pheromones" the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) have been spraying are synthetic, and contain toxic components that have made hundreds of people sick already, with the homeless particularly impacted.

Law suits have been filed, and various city officials have taken a stand against the spraying, including the Mayor and City Council of Albany, which unanimously resolved to stand in opposition to the State's spray campaign. Thanks to the tireless efforts of all these people, many of them injured by the spray, the Ag industry has postponed further aerial spraying until "late Spring or early Summer". To "educate" and "reach out" to us, the CDFA has hired themselves the PR firm Porter Novelli, started by two men who helped Nixon get re-elected, and who are now helping Dow Chemical (of napalm and Agent Orange fame) put on a friendly public face.

The CDFA has made it very clear that they are determined to continue spraying people's homes and gardens against the will of the people living here. Their postponement has bought us more time to organize against the spraying.

Take Action!

1. Sign the petition.

2. Contact your representatives.

3. Community meetings to discuss the situation have taken place in Oakland, Albany, and Berkeley. For more information about upcoming community meetings, contact eastbayinfo@stopthespray.org.

4. Learn more.