**Testimony of Charles H. Bronson**

**Florida Commissioner of Agriculture**

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Before the

Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture

Committee on Agriculture

United States House of Representatives

October 3, 2007

My name is Charles Bronson and I am Florida's Commissioner of
Agriculture. My department, the Florida Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services (FDACS), is the largest state department of
agriculture in the country with over 3700 employees. FDACS has a broad
and varied statutory mission in Florida that covers everything from food
safety and forestry to consumer services and aquaculture. These are in
addition, of course, to the plant and animal duties borne by most state
departments of agriculture. Even with all of these areas of operation,
FDACS spends the majority of its time and resources on protecting our
agricultural industry from the spread of pests and diseases. Agriculture
is Florida's second largest industry with farm gate receipts over \$7.8
billion and an estimated annual economic impact of \$97.8 billion.
Protecting this industry from pests and diseases is a job that we simply
cannot afford to fail at.

I want to express my appreciation to the Chairman and Ranking Member for
not only inviting me to testify on an issue that has great importance to
my state of Florida, but also for all of your actions relative to
bringing the Agriculture Quarantine Inspection (AQI) program back to the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). I know that this
Committee has had a long standing concern about the ramifications that
have arisen from the transfer of AQI to the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS). I am very grateful to Ranking Member Goodlatte for his
foresight in ensuring this Committee never allowed the AQI functions and
the ensuing transfer problems to fade away from Congressional scrutiny.
Over the last four years, I have been very outspoken about my concerns
regarding the lack of attention the agriculture function was receiving
from DHS officials and I appreciate the time he and his staff have given
to our concerns.

Let me be clear, I am extremely supportive of the role that DHS plays in
protecting our shores from intentional terror attacks. They have done a
phenomenal job in carrying out that specific mission. Unfortunately, DHS
has been trained to focus on people and cargo that would purposefully
harm U.S. citizens and businesses. Agricultural pests and diseases are
almost always brought into the U.S. by people or companies who do not
intend to cause harm. Whether a foreign traveler who brings fruits,
vegetables or meat products to family and friends or a foreign company
that has exported a product to sell here, both of these can cause
tremendous economic damage if not properly inspected, and appropriate
mitigation measures employed, for pests or diseases. This economic
damage can equal, if not exceed, those caused by intentional acts. I sit
here before you today knowing all to well the economic impacts a foreign
pest or disease can have on both an agricultural sector as well as a
state's economy.

In Florida, we face a unique challenge in that we have over 28 ports of
entry (including 14 deep water ports and 14 airports), nearly 50 million
visitors a year and 6 million tons of perishable cargo that enters our
state every year. 88% of the flower imports, 55% of the fruit and
vegetable imports and 85% of the plant imports that come into the
country come in through Miami. That, coupled with a climate that ranges
from tropical to temperate depending on where you are in the state
ensures that our agricultural production is at great risk of a pest or
disease incursion. In fact, historically, we discover one new foreign
plant or animal pest or disease a MONTH in Florida. It is a battle we
fight on a daily basis.

Since AQI was transferred to DHS in 2003, there has been a 27% increase
in the number of new plant pests and disease incursions in the state of
Florida. Chili thrips, South American longhorn beetle, gladiolus rust
and citrus greening are just a few examples. Chili thrips is a serious
insect that attacks over 100 different plants and is a major pest of
strawberries, cotton, soybeans and chilies. We have spent over \$400,000
on eradication efforts for gladiolus rust and the damage the longhorn
beetle is causing to trees in my state is still being determined. Even
more serious and economically damaging than these is citrus greening.
The presence of this disease, now in 25 of Florida's counties including
some of our largest citrus production areas, has resulted in the
implementation of new regulations that mandate all citrus plant
production must be inside approved structures. The consequences of these
regulations to Florida's citrus industry is that we are 900,000 trees
short of what is needed for new plantings and the price of new citrus
trees has increased from \$4.00 per tree to over \$10.00. Total costs of
this disease to an industry that contributes \$9 billion and 90,000 jobs
to the state's economy have yet to be fully calculated but preliminary
estimates suggest it will be in excess of \$375 million annually.

In fact, the last few months have resulted in detections of two
potentially devastating pests - sugarcane orange rust and the rice
cutworm. My department, working in conjunction with USDA-APHIS, is still
in the process of delimiting these infestations given their recent
detection, but I have no doubt there will be both economic and
ecological impacts felt in my state from them.

Nearly 18% of all foreign pest and disease interceptions are in Miami,
the highest rate for any city. But I am not as concerned with what they
are catching. It is what they [aren't]{.underline} that is the problem.
And unfortunately, due to Florida's plant and animal diversity, I
usually find out about what they missed when we find it on a plant or
animal species in Florida. If we can get to it quickly, then the costs
can be contained. But if we don't catch it quickly and it has spread,
then the costs to the federal government, the state government and
industry can be enormous. While quarantines can help mitigate the
spread, the reality is that they will never be 100% effective. And we
can't always count on our exporting countries in this effort. For some,
a pest or disease that could have devastating impacts in the U.S. is not
a problem in its native habitat so there is no recognition of risk.
Others, including some in the Caribbean Region, have no functioning
plant protection organization. Florida receives a high volume of
commercial and passenger traffic from the Caribbean and so we have been
actively involved in efforts within USDA to mitigate the risks these
countries pose to my state through both onshore and offshore activities.

But it is not just plant pests and diseases that cause me concern.
Recently we have received reports of birds imported as pets bypassing
quarantine facilities in Miami. Or animal hides brought into the country
for taxidermy purposes arriving with ticks attached yet DHS failed to
notify USDA. Further, there seems to be a lack of rigorous enforcement
of cleaning and disinfection procedures for animal and animal by product
(such as semen) shipping containers. Believe me when I say hearing
stories such as these cause a state agriculture commissioner to lose
sleep at night.

No one believes that port exclusion activities will completely eliminate
the introduction of foreign pests and diseases. But neither will
offshore threat identification and mitigation efforts alone. In fact,
APHIS relies on close collaborations with the Agricultural Research
Service (ARS), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Cooperative State
Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) for surveys, risk
assessments and research for both their onshore and offshore activities.
These collaborations are an integral part of APHIS' operations. The port
exclusion activities are critically important since many of APHIS'
offshore mitigation activities are deployed based on DHS' pest/disease
entry interceptions. We must therefore, have a functioning and effective
AQI if APHIS' overall risk identification and mitigation strategy is to
be successful.

Florida is a good example of a situation where the global marketplace,
increasing imports of agricultural goods and the number of international
travelers overwhelms our safeguarding systems to effectively deter
establishment or achieve early detection. Unfortunately, this situation
is not unique to Florida. I recently met with my colleagues around the
country during our annual National Association of State Departments of
Agriculture meeting. Pest and disease is always on the agenda as it
seems we are fighting a never ending battle. My good friend in Hawaii,
Sandra Kunimoto, the Chair of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture,
shared with me that the varroa mite, a pest that devastates honeybee
colonies, was recently discovered on the island of Oahu which has the
potential to cause millions of dollars in damage to Hawaii's queen bee
producers who, due to their previous mite-free status, have built a
thriving queen bee industry. She also shared with me the devastation the
erythrina gall wasp has caused to native trees throughout the state,
killing many different species and requiring significant resources for
tree removal. In addition, the culturally significant taro plant is
threatened by a disease that has been detected on imports of a different
type of taro called dasheen. While DHS has told Hawaiian officials about
the amounts of taro that have been intercepted, they will not divulge
any information as to inspections or the destination of the shipments so
as to allow Hawaiian officials to conduct inspections of intended
destinations in the state.

DHS is responsible only for exclusion activities for pests and diseases.
If they fail in their mission, there is no consequence for their
inaction. The entities that have had to deal with the consequences, USDA
and all of its agencies that collaborate on pests and diseases such as
ARS, USFS and CSREES, as well as state and industry stakeholders, have
had little choice the last four years other than to deal with the
repercussions of DHS' failure in this arena. This includes the
significant costs associated with mitigation, suppression and
eradication activities. These costs can quickly reach the tens of
millions of dollars. Citrus canker, for example, ended up costing a
combined federal-state total of nearly \$1 billion.

DHS is fond of saying that with all three inspection entities combined
into one agency, there are more sets of eyes looking for foreign pests
and diseases. I look at it a little differently. I fear that the
inspectors are becoming a little like "jack of all trades , masters of
none". Moving AQI inspectors back to USDA accomplishes two very
important things. First, it ensures that agriculture inspectors are
dedicated full time to preventing a pest or disease incursion. But also,
and I would say this was perhaps even more important, it allows the
inspection workforce that remains at DHS to focus solely and completely
on preventing a terrorist attack or weapon of mass destruction from
damaging the United States. Neither one has their mission diluted.
Rather than weakening the current infrastructure, I see a transfer of
AQI back to USDA as strengthening both USDA and DHS in their primary
mission area.

Again Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for having this hearing on an
issue that you can see I feel very strongly about. I look forward to
working with you on this issue in the future and would be happy to
answer any questions you may have.