Farm Compliance

Key managers within CBP and USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, including representatives from both the eastern and westerns regions covering a l0-state area attended the event.

Opening remarks were provided by Vic Harabin, eastern director for APHIS and Robert C. Gomez, CBP port operations director for Atlanta and New Orleans. Attendees made presentations and participated in group discussions on various topics, including plant protection and quarantine and CBP partnerships success stories; intercepts/safeguarding pathways; CBP agriculture canines, USDA state summaries; pest risk committees, plant pest identifiers; Asian Citrus Psyllid; smuggling interdiction and trade compliance; and violations and express courier operations.

As part of the conference, the group of 36 toured the recently opened Audubon Insectarium. Occupying 23,000 square feet in the historic New Orleans Customhouse, it is the largest freestanding museum dedicated to insects and the first new tourist attraction to open in the city since Hurricane Katrina.

CBP’s Gomez said that this collaborative effort provided a great forum for CBP and USDA to move both agencies toward better communications and cooperation in managing their joint mission priorities. He added, “The new ideas and solutions discussed, along with the necessary follow up actions, will benefit the overall Agriculture mission.”