Earlier correspondents are quite right that stricter enforcement of plant and seed import regulations is likely to be ineffective in thwarting "terrorism." However, it is effective in one thing that's important to the regulators: getting hold of part of the vast amount of federal funding that has been diverted to the recently established Department of Homeland Security, which administers APHIS (the agency in question, an acronym I am not making up). When administration policy veered in its current direction, many government agencies stood to lose funding, and those that could assert that in some way, however, far-fetched, their activities protected the United States from terrorism did so with alacrity in order to protect their budgets. I don't think the impetus is ideological at all; it's not an attempt to curtail individual freedom, just an attempt to hold onto staff jobs. If you think this view is too cynical, you've never worked for a publicly funded institution! Recent reports from oversight committees suggest that the truly dangerous gaps in security have not been covered by the DHS, but they've certainly made life hard for us innocent gardeners. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA