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Show r arm Bureau urges for battle against Medfly The executive vice president of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation has asked Governor Scott Matheson to "apply every possible pressure" to California's Governor Jerry Brown to reconsider recon-sider his refusal to allow aerial spraying to eliminate the dreaded Mediterranean fruit fly. "This pest is .a voracious insect that destroys whole orchards of fruit, particularly, soft fruits like peaches, apricots and pears. If it is not contained in California, it could easily i spread to southern Utah's fruit orchards," Wallentine warned. Wallentine said the issue in California is whether to apply malathion pesticide to orchards by aerial application ap-plication in the orchards surrounding urban areas. "Malathion is classed in the same category as common table salt when it comes to danger to humans. We have no record of any harm to humans from the use of this common garden pesticide," he said. The losses now being experienced by California fruit farmers could be common in Utah's southern warm-climate warm-climate fruit producing area, Wallentine said. "But in the long run, failure to control this : rapidly spreading Insect ' could add hundreds of millions in supermarket fruit prices. It has happened in Europe where they have failed to control the Medfly and it could happen here in America unless the current - outbreak in California is stopped in its tracks," he added. Wallentine said Florida has successfully controlled the Medfly through aerial spraying. He said a long effort to control the Medfly in California through every other mean except aerial spraying has failed. I |