California's agriculture secretary, A.G. Kawamura, favors spraying for the light brown apple moth (LBAM). Along with cities and communities representing 800,000-plus residents of spray areas, I am anti-spray.

This is a reply to Kawamura's guest commentary of March 30. The Coalition to Stop the Spray (CASSonline.org) has better reasons for an anti-spray position than the ag secretary has for spraying, namely:

1. The LBAM is not a threat to agricultural products because it has no history of doing extensive crop damage.

2. The only threat to growers is a trade quarantine that exists only because the U.S. Department of Agriculture made poor decisions decades ago and could correct the problem with a policy change.

3. Fear has been falsely planted by Kawamura, causing the Monterey County Farm Bureau and state Chamber of Commerce to act hastily on misinformation. Not only is eradication unnecessary, but some scientists say it is impossible.

Won't the LBAM damage hundreds of crops? Evidence and some scientists say "No."

In Santa Cruz County, which has more LBAMs than the rest of the state, zero crop damage has been found.

In New Zealand, the LBAM has become a minor pest. A report by Dr. Daniel Harder, adjunct professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California-Santa Cruz, and Dr. Jim Walker, technical research scientist for Hort Research in New Zealand, said, "Hawkes Bay horticultural researchers report that ... if LBAM were controlled,

... the maximum damage caused by LBAM would be 1 percent or less of crops."

Isn't the quarantine real and valid? It may be real, but not valid.

The USDA protected U.S. growers by incorrectly classifying the LBAM when it was in Australia and New Zealand. Now Canada and Mexico follow the USDA zero-risk trade policy, refusing to buy some U.S. products. The advice of UC-Davis entomology professor James Carey to the California Assembly's Committee on Agriculture was to "consider more realistic trade policy, consider non-zero risk."

Fear, in the form of gross exaggeration of the LBAM problem, caused growers to believe the LBAM must be eradicated. Carey is the author of three books on insect demography. In his testimony to the Assembly Ag Committee on March 12, he said, "The population growth model presented by the (state agriculture department) would not be taken seriously by any editor of any entomology or ecology journal in the world." By the state estimate, Carey said there would already be 50 moths per square inch in Berkeley, a total of two thousand trillion moths. Nevertheless, he said that eradication with or without spraying pheromones is impossible and that ground crews should be used to "control" the LBAM. This is a repeat of what happened in New Zealand, following widespread reaction against the conduct of the aerial spraying plan. We should learn from New Zealand's experience.

Because the state threat is exaggerated, can be removed by a USDA policy change, and cannot succeed, Californians must demand that the state terminate any plans to spray.

Dick Andre taught journalism at Hartnell College for 34 years. He holds journalism degrees from Stanford University and worked as a journalist for six years.