Coming from Sarah Palin, it sounded like the ultimate folly: U.S. taxpayer money funding a study of fruit flies in Paris, France. But…the studies, actually carried out at a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) laboratory near Montpellier, 750 kilometers south of Paris, may help protect California olive trees from a serious pest, scientists say.

California had been blissfully free of major olive pests until the olive fruit fly turned up near Los Angeles in 1998. Today, it’s a “huge economic problem” around the state, says entomologist Frank Zalom of the University of California, Davis. Most growers now protect their crops with insecticides. Releasing a natural enemy might provide an alternative; it would also help protect olive trees in gardens and along roadsides that don’t usually get sprayed, Zalom says.

Of course, ain’t anyone growing too many olives in Alaska. I guess we’re to presume that Alaskans don’t give a hoot about agriculture in the lower 48 – especially California?

To fight invasive insects, entomologist Kim Hoelmer says it’s important to be able to study them over the long term in their native habitats–in the olive fruit fly’s case, the Mediterranean region and Africa.

Hoelmer says that he believes he could convince anybody, including Palin, that his work is worthwhile. But as a government researcher, he can’t comment on political speeches. Zalom can. “This kind of stuff always drives me nuts,” he says. “It’s a total lack of understanding of the importance of research.”

I’d take it a step further and presume that a creationist politician probably has little understanding of any scientific methods.