Download Agricultural Policy and the Control of Nature in California: As shown

1 Agricultural Policy and the Control of Nature in California: As shown through the Hoof and Mouth disease epidemic of 1924 and the Mediterranean fruit fly ecoterrorist attack of 1989 Jamie Craig “The ‘control of nature’ is a phrase conceived in arrogance born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man. The concepts and practices of applied entomology for the most part date from that Stone Age of science. It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth.” ­Rachel Carson, ​
Silent Spring The purpose of this project is to dig deeper into the history of agricultural policy in California and to examine how events such as the hoof and mouth disease epidemic of 1924 and the Mediterranean fruit fly eco­terrorist attack in 1989 changed agricultural policies in California. Both epidemics illuminate the challenges faced by state officials with such a broad and diversified economy to safeguard. In both cases, existing agricultural policy was not sufficient in preventing these invasions, however it was forced to adapt and continues to adapt to new challenges. What is Hoof and Mouth Disease? Hoof­and­mouth disease, more commonly known as foot­and­mouth disease, is an infectious and potentially fatal virus that only affects animals with cloven hoofs such as 2 water buffalo, pigs, sheep, goats, antelope, bison, deer, and sometimes hedgehogs and elephants (“Foot­and­mouth disease,” 2016). Hoof­and­mouth disease is caused by the type of virus called picornavirus, which infects the cell of a host with a virus particle and then causes the cell to replicate thousands of copies of the virus until it bursts and ultimately infects the bloodstream of the victim (“Foot­and­mouth disease,” 2016). The United States has had a total of nine outbreaks of foot­and­mouth disease since its first recognition in 1870 that was brought to New York State by Canada, which then spread through New England (Spear, 1982). Foot­and­mouth disease has also severely affected countries such as the United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea, and Bulgaria (“Foot­and­mouth disease,” 2016). As goats or sheep become infected with foot­and­mouth disease, it is considerably difficult to identify for a significant period of time because the lesions and other indicators may be very mild and unnoticeable (Costa, 2012). However, during this time although it may not be visible, the animals will be producing many infectious aerosols as well as contaminating fomites, and spreading the virus simply through contact (Costa, 2012). On the other hand, foot­and­mouth disease spreads very rapidly within pigs because they produce thirty to one­hundred times more virus in aerosols than cattle or sheep. A single infected pig is able to produce a hundred million infectious doses each day (Costa, 2012). The 1924 California Foot and Mouth Disease Epidemic In 1924, the foot­and­mouth disease invaded California which had then ranked 11th among the states in the value of their livestock, harboring nearly two million cattle, three million sheep, and half a million hogs, valuing more than $130,000,000 (Spear, 3 1982). Implementing compulsory inspections in California was not enough to stop the hoof­and­mouth disease from threatening to destroy California​
’​
s agricultural economy in the mid­1920​
’​
s. In Fradkin’s ​
The Seven States of California, ​
he states that over one hundred thousand sheep and cattle were exterminated in only six months and army troops had to use machine guns to slaughter whole herds of them and incinerate their corpses​
.​
Fradkin says that the disease not only spread through cattle and sheep but also to the wildlife​
, ​
22​
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214 deer were shot and killed by hunters who fanned out across the area in an effort to halt the spread of this deadly disease​
. The United States Bureau of Animal Industry following the outbreak in 1914­1916 had developed a contingency plan in 1917 to deal with any future outbreaks (Spear, 1982). The Department of Agriculture then advised state legislatures to approve laws that would allow state officials to lay down emergency quarantine regulations, enforce the destruction of livestock and property, create penalties for violation of quarantine regulations, and to share costs of eradication with the federal government (Spear, 1982). The epidemic of foot­and­mouth disease in California started in the San Francisco Bay area when a veterinarian noticed suspicious symptoms in a small herd of dairy cows on February 17, 1924 who were slobbering profusely and refusing to eat (Clements, 2007). On February 18, a herd of 350 animals of the Shores Acres Dairy farm tested positive for foot­and­mouth disease (Spear, 1982). The Director of the California Department of Agriculture in Sacramento on February 21 issued a temporary quarantine of Alameda County which was then two days later extended to the Contra Costa and Solano counties, and then four days later to Napa County (Spear, 1982). California had been appropriated $6,000,000 by Congress for the eradication of the disease, however there were no state funds available (Spear, 1982). An emergency appropriation of $50,000 was collected, however, then California was left with the 4 problem of coming up with the money to pay the owners of the infected animals compensation for their slaughtered herds (Spear, 1982). Governor Richardson after first refusing, agreed to declare that the Department of Agriculture was underfunded by $2,000,000 (Spear, 1982). California had also never approved legislation authorizing the slaughter of animals that were not actually diseased even though they had to do so in order to ensure that the disease was successfully eradicated (Spear, 1982). Many states embargoed products originated in California that were far from the areas of infections (Spear, 1982). Trenches were dug and large herds of animals were slaughtered and immediately incinerated and then buried (Clements, 2007). Once all quarantines were removed by June 10, 1926, $4,350,000 was paid in compensation for destroyed property and the slaughtering of animals and $1,800,000 was accrued for operating expenses (Spear, 1982). Controlling Nature through Policy The 1924 California foot­and­mouth disease epidemic led to the legislation in 1930 of the prohibition of the importation of sheep, swine, cattle, or fresh, frozen, or chilled meats of any of these animals coming from any country known by the Secretary of Agriculture to hold foot­and­mouth disease (Spear, 1982). This led to the strengthening of the federal government in its defenses against not only hoof­and­mouth disease, but also throughout the adopted measures providing animal industry authorities the technical information on animal diseases to prevent future invasions (Spear, 1982). Through the hoof­and­mouth disease epidemic, California managed to survive through the siege of 1924 and resolve some public policy issues while strengthening its defenses against future disease control problems. 5 What is the Mediterranean Fruit Fly? The Mediterranean fruit fly, commonly known as the Medfly is a species of fruit fly that is capable of creating mass destruction. Native to the Mediterranean area, this fruit fly has spread invasively to all parts of the world e.g. Australia, North and South America (“Ceratitis capitata, 2016). Adult medflies look for fruit that has broken skin to lay their eggs in the fruit. These eggs hatch in only three days and then the larvae develops inside of the fruit for about 5­10 days depending on the temperature. After this stage of development the Medfly digs its way out of the fruit by making a tiny hole and then falls to the ground where it once again starts to dig and bury itself under a couple of centimeters of ground to pupate. Depending upon the weather, adult emergence from the ground can occur in as little as seven days. Although adults have limited ability to disperse, transportation of infected fruit has spread this pest thousands of miles, threatening to ruin the crops of many nations (“Ceratitis capitata”). The Mediterranean Fruit Fly Ecoterrorist Attack of 1989 In 1989, an ecoterrorist group known as the “Breeders” sent an unsigned, two­page, typewritten letter to Mayor Tom Bradley as well as agricultural officials and the media stating that they had imported as well as breeded Medflies in Southern California. In their letter, they attributed themselves to the recent outbreak of Medflies which were found just outside of spray zone 6 boundaries for the pest. The letter stated that if aerial sprayings of the pesticide malathion were not put to a stop they would continue to spread the Mediterranean fruit fly to the farm­rich San Joaquin Valley. The goal of this ecoterrorist attack being that they "decided to make the Medfly 'problem' unmanageable and aerial spraying politically and financially intolerable" (Chavez, Simon, 1989). Law enforcement officials tentatively investigated this mysterious letter from the “Breeders”, many of which suspecting that it was all a hoax. The letter was forwarded to Los Angeles Police Department from Mayor Tom Bradley’s office and then turned over for investigation by the Criminal Conspiracy Section, as stated by Los Angeles Police Commander, William Booth. “A threatening letter is something we take seriously” claimed Booth, confirming that even if the claims in the letter were a hoax, the writer committed at least a misdemeanor as, “...threatening to do something if government officials don't accede to their demands. That is a violation of the law,” and further stated that they could also be guilty of extortion among other crimes (Chavez, Simon, 1989). Associate director of the Department of Food and Agriculture, Rex Magee, stated that this threat must be taken “seriously until we prove otherwise. This particular infestation has had some characteristics that we have not seen in the past," (Chavez, Simon, 1989). U.S Department of Agriculture entomologist and dean of the state’s Medfly scientific advisory panel, Roy Cunningham, agreed with Magee, saying that there have been some unexplanatory aspects to the Los Angeles infestation (Chavez, Simon, 1989) . The investigation found it peculiar that there were no larvae, only a few flies outside of the spray zone boundaries. This unprecedented infestation required 232 square miles of primarily residential neighborhoods in Orange counties and Los Angeles 7 to be sprayed once or twice with malathion by low­flying helicopters. Since the malathion was sprayed in such low dosages, government officials claimed that it posed no threat to human health (Chavez, Simon 1989). Roy Cunningham expressed that the “Breeders” argumentation was seriously faulted, because the government would never “abandon the effort” of using aerial spraying to rid the Medfly, and subsequently, if the pest were to make a home of California, the pesticide malathion would be used in much higher quantities by farmers and house owners (Chavez, Simon, 1989). An Attempt to Eradicate the Medfly California State Senator Ruben S. Ayala responded to the threat by introducing the bill SB1754 to the Senate Agriculture and Water Resources Committee which now made it a felony for any person to import Mediterranean fruit flies to the state, instead of the misdemeanor it was already at that time. This bill brought into effect a 16­month to three year prison sentence and fines up to $10,000 for persons who imported the fly. On June 22, 1990, Senator Ayala’s proposal became a law and was added under Section 6306 of the Food and Agriculture Code (1989 California Medfly Attack, 2016). One year after the initial attack by the “Breeders”, seizures of postal shipments sought to be carrying the larvae of Medflies were carried out as well as the searching of 61,731 passengers and 2,430 cargo shipments in airports, which in return found no larvae. However, there were five cases in which Medfly larvae was found during “intensive searches” of baggage and cargo as it arrived at the Los Angeles and San Francisco Airports (1989 California Medfly Attack, 2016). As officials realized that the periodic aerial sprayings across Southern California were not working to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly, they soon stopped just three months after the initial threat had occurred. California instead released millions of sterilized male Medflies which would breed with female Medflies and produce no offspring, and the female would die soon after (1989 California Medfly Attack, 2016). On May 16, 1990, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, Ashley Dunn, wrote, “For the last four months, the state has pushed to increase sterile fly production and is now receiving about 300 million sterile flies a week­­enough to treat about 300 square miles of the infestation.” The flies were bred in facilities in places where the Medfly was already an established pest such as Mexico and Hawaii, where they were dyed to stand out among 8 other flies and subject to radiation, thus sterilizing them. They were then shipped to California in long, sausage shaped bags with thousands of fly pupae (Dunn, 1990). The Limits of Agricultural Policy The California government successfully combated and overcame both the hoof and mouth disease and the Mediterranean fruit fly epidemic of 1989. However, they exposed the limitations of static agricultural policy. In a state as large and diverse as California, new obstacles will continue to arise, which demand a reactive and adaptive agricultural policy, ready to meet new challenges. References: Chavez, S., & Simon, R. (1989, December 03). Mystery Letter Puts Odd Twist on Medfly Crisis. Retrieved May 02, 2016, from http://articles.latimes.com/1989­12­03/local/me­267_1_mystery­letter Clements, K. A.. (2007). Managing a National Crisis: The 1924 Foot­and­Mouth Disease Outbreak in California. ​
California History​
, ​
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(3), 23–42. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161893 Ceratitis capitata. (2016, April 6). Retrieved April 19, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratitis_capitata Costa, L. (2012, March 30). S T R A V A G A N Z A: FOOT­AND­MOUTH DISEASE. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from http://stravaganzastravaganza.blogspot.com/2012/03/foot­and­mouth­disease.html Dunn, A. (1990, May 16). State Gambles That Sterile Flies Can Do the Job : Medfly: Agriculture officials are about to attempt a tactical shift in the battle, replacing the aerial spraying of malathion. Retrieved May 02, 2016, from http://articles.latimes.com/1990­05­16/news/mn­303_1_million­sterile­medflies/2 Foot­and­mouth disease. (2016, February 10). In ​
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia​
. Retrieved 00:56, February 16, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foot­and­mouth_disease&oldid=7043302
12 9 Spear, D. P.. (1982). California Besieged: The Foot­and­Mouth Epidemic of 1924. Agricultural History​
, ​
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(3), 528–541. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3742552 United States, California Department of Food and Agriculture, Animal Health and Food Safety Services. (n.d.). ​
Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Information​
. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from ​
https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/Animal_Health/fmd_info.html http://3.bp.blogspot.com/­YqlAZSmbTpI/T3ZTjvdIvAI/AAAAAAAAHjo/SnPUuEX3G7
A/s1600/Foot+and+mouth+disease+in+cattle+01.jpg http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=mediterranean+fruit+fly+california&view=det
ailv2&&id=200321F39C3FE3E29666078E72E0DCF1609FA41C&selectedIndex=22&cci
d=VMPcvKsE&simid=608044830377380660&thid=OIP.M54c3dcbcab04572f35b953e7
2fa17310o0&ajaxhist=0 http://www.hungrypests.com/img/the­threat/med­fruit­fly/small/MediterraneanFruit
Fly3.jpg 1989 California Medfly Attack. (2016, February 16). Retrieved May 05, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_California_medfly_attack#cite_note­bee­34