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• Jun 10, 2008 11:54 pm US/Pacific
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  Experts Say Apple Moth Spraying May Be About Trade

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Experts Say Apple Moth Spraying May Be About Trade

 Apple Moth Spraying Central

(CBS 5) Agriculture officials with the State of California are planning to spray the entire Bay Area later this year in an effort to eradicate the light brown apple moth. But some experts told CBS 5 Investigates the problem isn't so much the moth: it's really about international trade.

Behind barbed wire, in a sprawling compound near Watsonville, uniformed men and women gear up for battle, hunting what they say is an insect of mass destruction: the light brown apple moth.

California State Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura believes that if the moth isn't eradicated that it will "spread throughout California but also through many parts of North America,"

The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the state $90 million to wipe out the moth. Part of the plan is government inspectors who are fanning out to do surveillance at nurseries such as Jeff Rosendale's.

According to Rosendale, government personnel come by his nursery regularly. "Every two weeks we get a full premise inspection," he said.

The inspectors are looking for moths or their caterpillars. Rosendale said if even one caterpillar is found, "this one little caterpillar will shut down the whole nursery and quarantine the whole nursery."

But Rosendale has trouble understanding why; he said although he's seen the moth in his nursery on occasion, "there's no crop damage. Occasionally a few holes in a leaf here and there."

Rosendale has come to believe the moth simply isn't a threat and he didn't reach that conclusion lightly. He actually flew to New Zealand, where the moth has been present for 100 years, to see for himself.

"The growers we talked to weren't reporting any damage from it", Rosendale said. "What we found is that its very well controlled there and that in the wild, it's very difficult to find."

So why is the apple moth suddenly an emergency in California?

Rosendale believes the state's real reason for declaring the emergency is the light brown apple moth's standing as a quarantine insect. The USDA maintains a list of insects that cannot come into the U.S. and any crops found containing those insects are quarantined. Some years ago, the light brown apple moth was put on that list.

That means products from other countries where the moth is found such as New Zealand and Australia have to pass strict inspections before they can be shipped to California. It's a process that some experts say has given California farmers a competitive edge.

But now the tables may be turning because just finding the moth here--whether it's really a problem or not--means California crops may face quarantine from other countries following our lead, like Canada or Mexico. They're quarantines that could cost California famers millions of dollars.

Darrell Chambers, a retired entomologist who worked for the USDA for more that 30 years, said that the trade issues are what is behind the emergency declaration, not actual crop damage.

"My take on it is that it's not a production issue as much as it is a marketing issue", Chambers said.

He says the impression given to other countries is key.

"You have to convince the trade partner that what you are doing is dealing with it," Chambers said.

Chambers also said the appearance of eradication is vitally important.

"I think it's critical," he said.

But Chambers said that explanation may not pass muster with the Bay Area public, which is expected to be subjected to spraying with pheromone pesticides designed to eradicate the moth later this year.

"I think the public would be really disappointed," Chambers said. "I think it's obvious the public would be less likely to support a program that was for marketing justification."

And Chambers is yet another scientist who does not believe the eradication plan will work.

"I am concerned that we are being led into an inevitable failure," Chambers said.

USDA officials first agreed to an interview with CBS 5 Investigates, but the interview was later turned down.

State agriculture department officials say they disagree with Mr. Rosendale's report on his trip to New Zealand, saying aspects of it are "unfounded" and that his findings are based on "unjustified suppositions."

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)