Today's wine industry continues it assaults on forests, orchards, the soil, and land. Its hoarding of water and fencing out wildlife is not new. Following is an article from 2001 about their attempt to spray farms and homes, without permission, to combat the glassy-winger sharpshooter, a pest that would damage their mono-crop.
The No Spray Action Network was formed to prevent that happening, and was successful. It is possible to struggle against the wine industry and prevail. Once again, the sharpshooter has been spotted in nurseries. We were able to get up to 500 people at meetings back then. The time to build such a mass movement has come again, before we lose more of the rural character that so many of us love so much.
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No Spray Forces Gather, By Shepherd Bliss
"We are poisoning our well here in Sonoma County," declared Sonoma City Council member Larry Barnett to a crowd of nearly 400 at the first public meeting of the growing No Spray Action Network. Barnett cited the increasing number of pesticides and other chemicals being used in the county.
No Spray opposes the government's plans for forced spraying of pesticides to control the glassy-winged sharpshooter on private and public properties against the will of residents. This tiny insect is harmless to people but can damage grape vines. The group gathered Jan. 16 at the Summerfield Waldorf School west of Santa Rosa in rural Sonoma County.
An infestation has not yet occurred in the North Bay, but last year various California counties were infested and forced spraying followed. A single adult sharpshooter arrived in Healdsburg during 2000 on a landscape plant from Southern California, which is typically how they travel long distances.
"The government is planning a war against this insect," observed Councilor Barnett. "They are on a search and destroy mission. This is reminiscent of the Vietnam War. The government is also spawning an anti-war movement." He called on people "to get involved politically against putting the profit of one industry over public health and safety. We need to make it more costly for them to spray than not to spray."
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