The Fly That Quarantined California and Pitted Environmentalists Against Farmers
But it would take more than conventional tools to defeat this bug. A massive ground eradication program failed to stop the Medfly, and a plan to spray pesticides from the air sparked angry protests and led Governor Jerry Brown into a dramatic showdown with the Reagan administration.
Today, California continues to fight the Medfly. But the tactics have changed – and so have the politics.
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