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Today's Topics:

1. "DOGE?s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery Prices to
Rise and Invasive Species to Spread" (Lee Poulsen)
2. Re: "DOGE?s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery Prices
to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread" (Robert Lauf)
3. Re: "DOGE?s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery Prices
to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread" (Michael Homick)
4. Re: "DOGE?s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery Prices
to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread" (Robert Lauf)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2025 11:02:52 -0700
From: Lee Poulsen <wpoulsen@pacbell.net>
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Subject: [pbs] "DOGE?s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery Prices
to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread"
Message-ID: <2A51259E-CEA1-4908-B795-FCE001C0819C@pacbell.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Saw this news article yesterday: "DOGE?s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US
Grocery Prices to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread?
<
https://wired.com/story/usda-food-supply-chains/…

Here are some excerpts:

6,000 employees were let go at the USDA (US Dept. of Agriculture) in
February as part of a government-wide purge orchestrated by the Trump
administration and Elon Musk?s so-called Department of Government
Efficiency (DOGE).

Before he received his termination notice, he says, Copeland had just
spent several months training the only dog stationed in Florida capable of
detecting the Giant African land snail, an invasive mollusk that poses a
significant threat to Florida agriculture. ?We have dogs for spotted and
lantern flies, Asian longhorn beetles,? he says, referring to two other
non-native species. ?I don?t think the American people realize how much
crap that people bring into the United States.?

Dog trainers are just one example of the kind of highly specialized USDA
staff that have been removed from their stations in recent weeks. Teams
devoted to inspecting plant and food imports have been hit especially hard
by the recent cuts, including the Plant Protection and Quarantine program,
which has lost hundreds of staffers alone.

?It?s causing problems left and right,? says one current USDA worker, who
like other federal employees in this story asked to remain anonymous for
fear of retaliation. ?It?s basically a skeleton crew working now,? says
another current USDA staffer, who noted that both they and most of their
colleagues held advanced degrees and had many years of training to protect
US food and agriculture supply chains from invasive pests. ?It?s not
something that is easily replaced by artificial intelligence.?

The USDA cuts are being felt especially in coastal states home to major
shipping ports. USDA sources who spoke to WIRED estimate that the Port of
Los Angeles, one of the busiest in the US, lost around 35 percent of its
total Plant Protection and Quarantine staff and 60 percent of its
?smuggling and interdiction? employees, who are tasked with stopping
illegal pests and goods from entering the country. The Port of Miami, which
handles high volumes of US plant imports, lost about 35 percent of its
plant inspectors.

-----
So for those of us in the U.S., I have questions:

1. Does this mean that plant material that we import will just sit at the
inspection station (where the green and yellow label directs it) and remain
there (and possibly die) until one of the diminished staff finally gets
around to inspecting it? Or will they just start sending a bunch of stuff
on uninspected so that the pile of uninspected items doesn?t just keep
growing to overwhelming proportions? (And for those so inclined, might this
be an opportunity to try to import plants, bulbs, or seeds for which it is
difficult to impossible to obtain a phytosanitary certificate from the
sender?s country or which are not allowed? ??)

2. Does anyone know how this will affect the South African bulb order?

3. Should those of us in the US stop trying to import any plants, bulbs,
or seeds from abroad for the foreseeable future, or until things get back
to ?normal? (whenever that will be)?

4. And what about things we?ve already ordered and paid for that are on
the way, but might not arrive until after April 2? Even if they do make it
through inspection without too much delay, the current plan is to start
charging tariffs on everything imported from every country starting on
April 2. Will customs hold onto everything that arrives and notify the
recipient that they need to pay the new tariff before it will be released?
How will that be done? Will they send it on out once the tariff is paid, or
do we have to figure out how to ship it from customs to us and pay for any
additional shipping charges?

5. I wonder if any new plant pests or diseases really will get in during
this time?

--Lee Poulsen
San Gabriel Valley, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a
Latitude 34?N, Altitude 340 ft/100 m

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2025 18:47:42 +0000 (UTC)
From: Robert Lauf <boblauf@att.net>
To: Lee Poulsen via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Subject: Re: [pbs] "DOGE?s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery
Prices to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread"
Message-ID: <1765924249.6020367.1742410062270@mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Leigh and Johann have been diligently working on processing our group
order since Tues of last week.? They hope everything will be dug, washed,
and suitably dry by the end of the month and will be shipped around April 1.
I have spoken with the supervisory inspectors in both Jamaica, NY (JFK)
and Linden, NJ (Newark) and they assured me that they have no problem doing
what we did last time in ATL, viz., inspecting and shipping directly to
Bridget, rather than to me, using the UPS labels we will have enclosed in
the orders.
I specifically asked the lady in Linden what the work load is like at her
station vs JFK and she said she wasn't sure about JFK but generally at her
station plants are in and out typically in two days.? That was our
experience at ATL as well.? The article cites a 35% reduction in inspection
staff, and laughably describes what's left as a "skeleton crew".? But doing
the math, adding 35% to the 2-day turnaround time doesn't strike me as a
crisis in the offing.
Lastly, it is important to note that to the dormant bulb, a week or two in
a clean cardboard box, mostly at room temperature, is a walk in the park
compared to baking in the ground during the dry season in the Kalahari.
Bottom line is that I don't think the sky is falling and Uncle Sam can get
all the liposuction treatments possible and life will go on.? Our order
this time totals well over $6000 and 41 member orders.? We expect things to
go smoothly.? Please keep Bridget in your thoughts and prayers as she
braces for the arrival and distribution phase of the project.
As to the issue of tariffs, this remains up in the air at the moment.?
Live plants are not subject to duties, yet the customs broker working for
DHL wrongly charged duties last time.? I had to jump in and pay them to
avoid having everything sent back, and managed to claw the money back a few
months later.? Worst case would be that our order arrives at customs and we
have to pay something (a maximum of 20%, which appears to be what South
Africa charges on American imports).? Even with a 20% add-on the total will
still be far less than our early estimate in which we told everyone to plan
on a grand total of twice the catalog price of the bulbs.? Last time it
worked out to more like 125% of the catalog price.? So we'll see but most
members will, I think, come away satisfied with the value proposition.
In any case, I will be monitoring the shipment on a daily basis so we can
respond to whatever comes up without causing delays.
Bob? ?infested by maple pollen in Zone 7

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2025 14:01:21 -0700
From: Michael Homick <michaelhomick@gmail.com>
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Subject: Re: [pbs] "DOGE?s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery
Prices to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread"
Message-ID:
<
CAH7Rr8d4g7o9t8WrcCoqLKszWtz+K8H2gvjrHWf4_7rrZtNE5w@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Hi Lee and the group:
I am involved with a project to disseminate and protect rare lilium species
in tissue culture. Last fall I placed a rather substantial order for Lilium
species in tissue culture to: https://www.lilium-tc.com/. Previously
orders came through fine with just minor delays. Matthias obtained phytos
for everything and we had all the proper paperwork for importation. The
USDA in their wisdom now gamma irradiates all plant material from Austria
due to potato cyst nematodes. So when my shipment and others who also
ordered separately got their plants everything was cooked.
I evn planned on making a trip physically to Austria this year ( round trip
approx $700.00) but restrictions permit only 12 plants to be physically
brought back on your person. I called the USDA to verify this restriction
and was told that indeed twelve plants is the limit and that they would
also be subjected to irradiation. The logic is that plants grown from seed
in tissue culture would have no contact with potato cyst nematodes or soil.
It is all very frustrating. Um.... maybe a lead lined shipping container?

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2025 02:27:02 +0000 (UTC)
From: Robert Lauf <boblauf@att.net>
To: Michael Homick via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Subject: Re: [pbs] "DOGE?s Cuts at the USDA Could Cause US Grocery
Prices to Rise and Invasive Species to Spread"
Message-ID: <1010753399.6207794.1742437622276@mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Michael,
You have discovered another complication in the business.? There are a lot
of one-off restrictions that might or might not be visible to you when you
set up your import permit.? For instance, when I was setting my permit to
include all the genera that members wanted, four of them? (Crocosmia,
Gladiolus, Gloriosa, and Watsonia) cannot be added to the permit if coming
from South Africa.? A flag says these are NOT ALLOWED entry at all, I
believe because they can harbor brown potato rot.? So we had to remove them
from any order that has them on it.
Issues like that are definitely not negotiable.? However, I do note that
there are various permits, including one to allow importing of live pests
for use in research (I'm not making this up).? You might want to delve into
the more exotic permit classes to see if there is one that is tailored
specifically for bottle babies; as I recall, one can get docs that allow
importing bottles of orchid seedlings of species that are on CITES and
would otherwise be illegal to sell if wild-collected.
If you haven't already done so, you might call the guy at the APHIS mother
ship in Maryland.? You'll get a robo-operator but at the appropriate point
in the menu, pick the one about importing live plants and then leave a
message.? He will get back to you promptly, and has always been very
helpful when I have questions.? He might know of a work-around for your
problem.? But when it comes to serious threats to food crops, they will err
on the side of caution, and we can't blame them.
Contact me privately if you want to discuss things in more detail.? But it
sounds like Austria might be the deal breaker and your supplier needs to
set up a lab someplace else.? Good luck!
Bob? ?Zone 7, waiting for the rain tonight.

------------------------------

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End of pbs Digest, Vol 97, Issue 13
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