Web Drop In Activity #1
APHIS and its Roll in Protecting American Agriculture
Instructor: Mrs. Powell Mayhew
Damascus High School
Horticulture Program
Introduction
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) protects and promotes U.S. agricultural health. Its mission, as a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is to provide the Nation with safe and affordable food. Without this protection the threat to our agriculture industry would be enormous. APHIS keeps insect pests in check, and works to see that new diseases and insects are not introduced to our country that could devastate American agriculture.
Importations of fruits and vegetables into the U.S. have to be inspected to ensure that they do not contain diseases and or pests that would threaten American agriculture. In 2002 the California alone imported 178,259 shipments of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables totaling over1.6 billion kilograms. Each of these shipments must be inspected by APHIS.
One of the tools in this war on imported pests is the Beagle Brigade. These nonaggressive detector dogs and their APHIS Inspector handlers are part of the agricultural quarantine and inspection (AQI) detection program and serve as goodwill ambassadors by educating the public about the USDA, APHIS and it’s goals.
You will be exploring commercial fruit and vegetable importation, APHIS, and the roll of the Beagle Brigade.
Information
You will be searching in the Plant Protection and Quarantine area of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website. Visit www.aphis.usda.gov website using the link below. This will take you to a listing of agricultural imports in California, the article and the button bar on the left hand side of the page will provide the information you need to complete this assignment.
Use this link for the assignment - www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/ppqca/ca_imports.html
Questions
1. Which Port of Entry has the highest volume of fruit and vegetable imports? ________
2. What country had the largest number of import shipments? ________________
3. What item was imported in the largest quantity? __________________
4. Does the Beagle Brigade play an enforcement role in the commercial importation of fruits and vegetables?_________________________
Is there a correlation between the amount of commercially imported fruits and vegetables and the presence of a Detector Dog Team (Beagle Brigade) at the port of entry? Explain your reasoning in paragraph form, site information from the website.