🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <10258@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> (Ely Rabani/D Smith) writes:

>Here again, few citizens were consulted as the State government's
>bureaucracy did and does the bidding of special interest groups, and the
>beneficiaries have no responsibility--even token--for the social costs
>and REAL economic costs incurred.  Only in the particular kind of
>atomistic-free-market-but-socialism-for-the-corporations economy that we
>have can something like this go unnoticed.
>
>Considerring all of the mistakes made in the mannagement of med-fly
>control, since its outset under Gov. Brown, can we trust the same
>institution to fly over populated areas pumping out a toxin laden
>witches' brew???  Since the jury's still out on safety, error on the
>side of caution is the only prudent response.

I must take strong exception to several of your statements here.  The
first is your characterization of farmers as corporations.  My parents
own a 25 acre orange grove, they are not a corporation, and if the
infestation spreads to them (or even a  portion of California)
they will face financial ruin and the destruction of a good part of their
lifes work.  So your 'caution' is a relative thing.

The second point that I would make is that the decision not to spray, and
to allow the infestation to spread, carries costs also.  It is my opinion
that these costs will adversely effect the health of far more people than
any theoretical danger to a relatively small percentage of the population
that is represented by the current spraying.  If the Med-fly becomes
established in California, we will see an astronomical increase in the 
ammount of pesticides that are applied to the food that we eat.  This
will be constant exposure, over long periods of time, to a great majority
of the people in the state.  This type of exposure poses a real health 
threat.

The third point is that the major mistake of the Med-fly control program
under Gov. Brown was the delaying of the aerial spraying of Malathion so
that the area that had to be sprayed was far greater than if they had
started the spraying quickly.  BTW, I was living in Mountain View in a 
spray zone at the time, it was inconvenient, but not the end of the world.

Guido Marx