CDFA Pest PEIR Must Not Be Allowed
This is an important alert to all California readers. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is preparing a ‘Programmatic Environmental Impact Import’ (PEIR) which will give them advance approval for all future pesticide spraying programs, without any safeguards of public input of any kind.
As I see it, this is the government’s reaction to the massive public protest of the LBAM spraying in 2007-2009 that effectively halted some of the most egregious aspects of that horrific program after the families of the central coast had been aerially sprayed. Remember: this was the first time a state’s residents had ever succeeded in stopping aerial spraying in the entire history of the country. I’m sure it freaked the CDFA out.
The goal of the CDFA’s Pest PEIR is to take away any opportunity for public input on future pesticide spraying by gaining carte blanche approval for anything the agency wants to do. There isn’t a county in California that isn’t already overly-burdened with toxins, and VeganReader views CDFA’s Pest PEIR as being a disaster for human and environmental health. California’s government needs to spend its compromised budget on cleaning up our state – not further polluting and damaging it.
You can read a press release and joint letter of protest to Jerry Brown here and you can get information about writing your own letter to the governor here.
As Californians, we are tired of breathing air that gives us cancer. We are tired of eating poisoned food from monocropping agribusinesses. We are tired of not being able to swim in our rivers because they are toxic, let alone drink water anywhere but from the treated tap. We are tired of a government that closes beloved state parks with one hand, while dumping pesticides on children with the other.
These unwanted scenarios do not align with our need for health and life. California needs to abandon antiquated methods of ‘controlling’ the environment with chemicals. It doesn’t work, and it makes every living thing sick. CDFA’s post-WW II approach to agriculture is a failure and it’s time to move forward towards healthy stewardship of the land, via education and dedication to making this state a place where it is safe to live, eat, drink, breathe, work and play.
If you live in California, please consider writing to Jerry Brown to tell him you do not support CDFA’s proposed Pest PEIR and that you want total reform in the outdated agricultural policies that have turned our state toxic.
July 2, 2011
http://www.veganreader.com/2011/07/02/cdfa-pest-peir-must-not-be-allowed/