California does not have the interstate inspections anymore. Last time I drove back from Reno on I-80 the booths for the inspection were gone.
They were certainly there (and operating) when I drove that route 12 days ago.
LOL Al, no doubt! Hey maybe fruit is a good ploy! You could go make a big deal about having fruit, make a fuss, get rid of it ostentatiously, then they'd be sick of you and send you on your way with your kilo!
Remember Mel Brooks and Madeline Kahn going through security at the airport? Trying to keep their guns hidden by causing a huge disruption and being difficult. Which movie was that?It is fairly pointless. How many fruit fly laden fruits of mass destruction can one rail passenger carry across the border and how many insects flew across the border that day? Or does the wind only blow northwards and the Swat teams pick off the stragglers?
It may appear pointless and easy to circumvent, but anything that even reduces (even if it doesn't eliminate) the chance of an infested item being brought in is absolutely necessary to the food supply of the nation as a whole: some sources say that California provides a full third of the nation's agricultural output and is the nation's primary supply for a number of food products in the U.S., including tomatoes, almonds, grapes, cotton, apricots, and asparagus.
Absolutely not pointless. A Mediterranean fruit fly infestation in California could devastate an entire crop. A pest coming across the border cannot get very far, but a pest carried across the border can end up anywhere, including prime agricultural areas. Most of the pests being targeted don't just fly around day to day, but they establish homes in the fruit. They lay eggs there and the larvae live and feed in the fruit for about a week. One infested apple could host a whole bunch of Medfly larvae. If that apple ended up in Fresno, the result could be very bad. The issue is not whether Canada is a haven for pests, but whether you enforce inspections and prohibitions consistently regardless of the originating country. If border controls help prevent an infestation even just a little, then it is worth it.
In Southern Nevada/California the interstate inspection stations are still there (well, my last accurate intelligence is six months old, but I would have heard from my friends in Las Vegas if these had disappeared). However, I don't think it's on every road, and there may be inconsistent operation on the Interstates (sort of like with weigh stations, often closed but sometimes open). And they certainly never inspect for fruit on the Zephyr or Sunset or Chief, nor airplanes flying into LAX, SFO, SJC, etc. To get from Las Vegas northwest to a few of the very sparsely populated counties on the western side of Nevada, you actually have to drive through California on very small roads through the middle of nowhere--Nevada doesn't actually have the roads--and you almost always get inspected.
Yes, all valid points, but how do you stop the pests flying over the totally nominal line in the ground that denotes a border and infecting fruit over the other side of that border, and then spreading from there? You can't. Like Pig flu,you cant stop this sort of thing. Pulling up Tangerine Terrorists at stations (and since when was Canada a big citrus fruit producer? As someone else says it probably came from California anyway!) is as pointless asking me if I was a member of the **** party between 1938 and 1945 or am I a bad and nasty person coming to do bad and nasty things..... Security Theatre.
I remember that children book. It made me so captivated into reading. Sadly, that old lady died.
It usually applies to raw fruits and vegetables where the larves and even hidden bugs are.
Nope. The route Vienna-Prague-Berlin is far shorter than Vienna-Passau-Berlin.
As I m' a personal enemy to fruit flies since high school days (as they have been used in biology). I would certainly like to agree, but if the swine flu can spread all over the planet in just a few days, how on earth do you expect that a fruit fly can't cross a border within a few years.
Like I said earlier, the natural borders around California are not exactly conducive to fruit flies flying into the state. Between the Sierra Nevada mountains, southwestern deserts, northern mountains and forests (and deserts in eastern Oregon), there's not really a place where fruit flies would be able to enter the state without dying from lack of food.
I can recall being questioned at a California inspection point behind which was a hill entirely covered in cheatgrass, or some other flammable invasive grass species. It struck me that they were closing the barn door a bit late, but I figured mentioning this would do me no good. That's one reason I have doubts about California having special stops.
I thought of that for sure, but it seems just as likely that they are from some Asian country. I see a lot more produce from China in Vancouver than I do down here in Washington.
Oh please spare me, a full set of finger prints and a photograph at the end of a 14 hour journey - give me the aerosol (now fed into the cabin air automatically 2 hours off the coast since the 747 was introduced in 1970) anyday :angry: .
h34r: .Rudyard Kipling - The Just So Stories. A bit early for cartoons, I think.
Yes, it was written by Rudyard Kipling- along with Gunga Din & Jungle Book, & Captains Courageous. All of these have been commited to film at some time. The animated Rikki Tikki Tavi was produced in 1975- my bad I thought I saw it when I was a kid. Must have seen it with my oldest when she was little. In fact my mom & I were just talking about this cartoon last week.
