On the winning side?

Lee Frankel, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas in Nogales, wrote this letter to the House Agriculture Committee. The letter was forwarded to The Packer by Allison Moore of the FPAA.
From Frankel's letter:

We are writing to express our concern regarding a provision included in the House Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture Title of the Farm Bill that will significantly reduce the importance of agriculture inspections of produce entering the United States. Section 41 of the draft bill repeals the transfer of APHIS import inspection functions to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) made under the Department of Homeland Security Act of 2002 and requires the return of those functions to USDA. We strongly oppose this provision.

The Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, located in Nogales Arizona, is a non-profit trade association representing U.S. importers of fresh fruits and vegetables from Mexico. In our experience, agriculture inspections have received increased emphasis at ports of entry since their transfer to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), providing better protection for U.S. agriculture against invasive agricultural pests.

CBP has significantly increased staffing of Agriculture Specialists since the transfer of agriculture inspections to DHS. CBP has 30% more Agriculture Specialists on staff than when the inspection program was part of APHIS. There are now Agriculture Specialists are 150 ports, 20 more ports than were covered under APHIS. In addition, all 18,000 CBP officers now receive more intensive agriculture training, making them more effective at referring potential pest risks to CBP Agriculture Specialists. This has elevated the importance of agriculture inspections significantly at all ports of entry, making them an integrated part of all CBP frontline inspections.

Additionally, CBP has elevated the voice of the Agriculture Specialists by placing senior agriculture officials in positions to directly have input in port operations. It is clear that under the new structure longstanding issues are being addressed to ensure the accurate reporting of inspections performed at the ports and to allocate staffing based on risk assessment and need at the individual ports. Inspection priorities are now electronically and accurately transmitted to all ports of entry to ensure better consistency of inspections across ports.

Moving agriculture inspections back to USDA-APHIS would be a significant step backwards, again relegating agriculture inspections to second-class status at all ports of entry. We would like to point out that movement of this function would also be expensive and disruptive. At a time when the security of our nation at the border should be paramount, it makes no sense to engage in this disruptive and pointless move.

We would also like to bring your attention to the fact that both the Department of Homeland Security and USDA agree that the function should remain with DHS. We believe that their understanding of the cost and security implications of moving the functions at this time should be respected.

Again, I urge you to repeal Section 41 of the House Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture Title of the Farm Bill in order to maintain the effectiveness of agriculture operations at our ports of entry. I am also attaching a briefing document that explains the dangers of this proposal in more detail. Please do not hesitate to contact me with additional questions regarding this issue.
Sincerely,

Lee Frankel
President
Fresh Produce Association of the Americas


TK: I have a call into Lee but haven't talked to him. Although many produce trade associations support moving the border inspections back to the USDA, several industry leaders I have talked to doubt Congress has the energy or will to make it happen. Lee may be on the winning side of this debate. However, Frankel's argument that CBP has now provides better protection for U.S. agriculture against invasive pests than the USDA did would sound better coming from an association of U.S. growers, rather than a group of distributors who handle Mexican fruits and vegetables.