{"id":4040,"date":"2022-11-10T14:22:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T19:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationalpotatocouncil.org\/?p=4040"},"modified":"2022-11-10T14:23:19","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T19:23:19","slug":"after-usda-risk-assessment-npc-urges-increased-protections-to-prevent-pei-potato-wart-spread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalpotatocouncil.org\/after-usda-risk-assessment-npc-urges-increased-protections-to-prevent-pei-potato-wart-spread\/","title":{"rendered":"After USDA Risk Assessment, NPC Urges Increased Protections to Prevent PEI Potato Wart Spread<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2013 <\/strong>On Thurs., Nov. 10, the National Potato Council and a dozen state potato associations issued a letter to USDA Undersecretary of Marketing and Regulatory Services Jenny Moffitt calling on the department to work with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to develop new phytosanitary protocols to prevent the spread of potato wart from Prince Edward Island to U.S. growing areas. The letter follows a risk assessment<\/a> issued by USDA\u2019s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on Oct. 14 that concluded the disease is \u201calmost certain to be introduced\u201d to the United States without additional mitigation measures in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognizing that USDA was put under significant political pressure to reopen the border to table stock potatoes following a White House meeting between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Biden, the industry remains disappointed that last Spring exports \u201cwere allowed to reopen with essentially the same protocol as before the ban was implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, the industry wrote<\/a> Secretary Vilsack urging him to implement \u201creasonable mitigation measures\u201d that could be completed efficiently and without impacting trade in clean product. \u201cUnfortunately,\u201d the group wrote, \u201cno such steps were taken and potato wart disease detections continue to be announced on PEI as recently as last week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the Oct. 14 APHIS risk assessment, \u201cit is clear that the current protocol (the 2015 Federal Order) no longer meets Secretary Vilsack\u2019s standard and does not provide the necessary mitigation to protect the U.S. industry from disease introduction. Therefore, a new protocol must be put in place immediately in order to establish the necessary protection,\u201d the group states in the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NPC and the state organizations offered a number of questions and observations that should be addressed by APHIS and CFIA in constructing a new protocol, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n