[APWG] U.S. Agriculture inspections fall off

[Patricia_Ford at fws.gov]

Agriculture inspections fall off
Growers fear infestations after Homeland Security took USDA's border duty.

By Michael Doyle -- Bee Washington Bureau

Published 2:15 am PST Monday, March 14, 2005

WASHINGTON - California farmers may have been prescient to worry three
years ago when the Homeland Security Department assumed the job of
protecting U.S. borders from foreign pests and diseases.

Agricultural inspections at ports of entry subsequently fell markedly
between 2002 and 2004, federal investigators now note. The 8 percent
decrease occurred even as imports kept rising, and coincided with the
Homeland Security Department replacing the Agriculture Department at the
inspection stations.

(Embedded image moved to file: pic15936.jpg)"I'm mad about it," Joel
Nelsen, president of Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual, a grower trade
association, said Friday. "I believe we're very susceptible to an
intentional or accidental infestation."

Total agricultural inspections at U.S. ports of entry fell to 37.5 million
in 2004 from 40.9 million in 2002, Government Accountability Office
investigators noted in their new report.
Sniffing dogs are being used less frequently, investigators added.

And in what could be a sign of decreasing efficiency, the number of
seizures of prohibited plants and animals fell from 1.8 million in 2002 to
1.6 million in 2004.

Instead of searching 1,200 cargo containers each week at one high-volume
port, the inspectors were looking at about 500. The inspectors said the
unnamed port director had told them to cut their holds on agricultural
cargo.

"I'm to the point where I think the agricultural inspections really need to
be transferred back to the Agriculture Department," Nelsen said.

Merced Democrat Dennis Cardoza, a member of the House Agriculture
Committee, said Friday he thought it was "too early" to consider relocating
the agricultural inspectors again, but he echoed farmers' overall concerns.

"In a time when we should be increasing the number of inspections, the
administration is just not getting the job done," Cardoza said.

The fall-off in inspections, in turn, exposes the nation's vulnerability to
agricultural terrorism. The potential danger goes beyond the risk of
poisoning people, as investigators warn of "severe economic disruption"
from the deliberate introduction of plant and animal disease.

Nor are the threats necessarily deliberate. The new report notes that alert
inspectors at a California mail facility stopped a potential outbreak of
devastating citrus canker disease last year when it intercepted an illegal
shipment of Japanese branch cuttings.

Homeland Security officials attributed some of the inspection fall-off to
their shortage of trained inspectors. The department plans to hire an
additional 500 inspectors this year, and says it is improving training.

"The combination of additional personnel with specialized knowledge
together with advanced targeting systems and risk management will produce a
more efficient inspection process," the Homeland Security Department stated
in its official response.

It takes time, though. Officials say the required background checks that
can take a year or more deter some potential inspectors.

"They not only started behind, they went remarkably slowly in filling
vacancies," Nelsen said.

When Congress created the Department of Homeland Security in response to
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, lawmakers transferred about 1,500
Agriculture Department inspectors into the new agency. Others chose not to
make the move, while the Agriculture Department retained about 6,000
employees in what is still called the Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service.

New job titles and uniform patches did not alleviate farmers' concerns.
Nelsen warned the House Agriculture Committee at a hearing in November 2003
about the potential for diminished inspections. San Joaquin Valley
lawmakers raised similar concerns about splitting the old Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service.

"I do not believe it has any reason to be in Homeland Security; and I
believe it would be detrimental to the functions that APHIS is charged with
if it were put in Homeland Security," Tracy Republican Richard Pombo, a
member of the House Agriculture Committee, stated at a 2002 hearing.

In part, farmers worried that the 170,000-employee Homeland Security
Department wouldn't be as responsive as the Agriculture Department.

The new GAO study offers evidence they may have been right.

When exotic Newcastle disease broke out in Southern California in 2003,
deeply worrying Central Valley poultry producers, the Agriculture
Department requested 83 inspectors. The Homeland Security Department
provided 26, the new report notes.

"The one issue we wanted was to have enough inspectors on the ground right
away," said Bill Mattos, president of the Modesto-based California Poultry
Federation. "In future outbreaks, we do need the coordination to work as
quickly as possible."

Mattos added that he wasn't as concerned about which department was
overseeing the inspections as he was about getting "the right security in
place."

About the writer:
·     The Bee's Michael Doyle can be reached at (202) 383-0006 or
mdoyle at mcclatchydc.com.