To Spray or Not To Spray

I’m back from my hiatus. I went off and got married, then went on a honeymoon and to finish it off, moved north about 500 miles. It’s been quite a summer!

I don’t want to get entirely too personal in this essay, but I have to comment. A few weeks before moving, my new husband and I made a trip up north, to Sonoma county, California, to look for our new digs. I must have a nose for these things, but I easily found the county Green Party newspaper. I was thoroughly happy that the Sonoma Green Party had a paper. (I had tried to get one going with my local Green Party down south, but it never got off the ground. Lack of funds, as always, was the excuse.) I was also surprised to find out that this paper I was reading was the first the county has produced. I hope there’s many more to come.

There was one particular article that really struck my fancy and decided to write this essay about it. I know this may not pertain very widely outside if the county I now live in, but I did think this local activity was interesting for all.

Evidently there is a pest to the local vineyards called the Glassy-winged Sharpshooter. This insect spreads a disease called Pierce’s Disease. The article didn’t go into much detail, and not being from the area, I don’t know the background. I can only guess that the Pierce Disease is very harmful to the vineyards, perhaps losing all of their crop and not being able to make any wine in that season. It seems that in the county whenever there is a small amount of these pests found then spraying occurs, and without the consent of neighbor’s. This is where the problem lies. The people who live in the area want to be informed when there is to be spraying so they may protect themselves, and their pets or livestock if they have any. (This county can be quite rural.) A network has formed, The No Spray Action Network, or NSAN, to move the movement forward. A few cities in the county have passed resolutions to ban enforced spraying without consent. The movement is trying to expand the regions. NSAN has provided to growers some alternatives for eradicating the pests without resorting to neurotoxic sprays. It looks like these ideas haven't been well received by the growers.

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