CBP Agriculture Specialists Deliver for Mom

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, Agriculture Specialists are inspecting the large influx of floral arrangements at our ports of entry to ensure they are free from insects, pests and diseases.

According to CBP, while a relatively small number of harmful pests are found among the millions of stems inspected by CBP, a single dangerous pest could cause millions of dollars of damage to U.S. crops. In fact, exotic pests and foreign animal diseases cost around $138 billion in economic and environmental losses every year.

Mother’s Day and Easter are busy times for flower imports, but not as busy as Valentine’s Day, when Agriculture Specialists inspect more than 1 billion imported stems in the weeks leading up to Feb. 14.

NTEU thanks these highly-trained employees, who make sure moms will get flowers that are not only beautiful, but safe for our environment and country.

For our part, NTEU continues to advocate on Capitol Hill for legislation that would authorize the hiring of additional Agriculture Specialists to meet CBP’s staffing needs.