Why does it take the USDA 5 days to examine a few plants.

11 years ago

I just received a parcel of Cyps from Fraser's Thimble Farm. This is the third time I have received goods from them over the last couple of years. They ship from British Columbia, Canada, use express mail and their parcels arrive in 3 days.

This time our beloved Agriculture Department inspected the plants, found everything to their satisfaction and then passed the plants one to me. It took them 5 days to inspect a handful of plants and by the time I got them (8 days in transit), they were in sad shape. 3 are yellow and look like they won't survive, the others are still green but have been bent at weird angles because of thoughtless repacking. Leaves and buds broken, some squashed.

I can see where we need to protect our Ag industry from foreign invasive pests but 5 days to inspect a shoe box size order and then repacking them carelessly makes my blood boil. I thought they are working FOR us not AGAINST us. All the documents were in order, the plants were clean and they got a clean bill of health but FIVE days!!!

Yuk.

Nick

Comments (3)

olympia_gardener
11 years ago
Nick, totally sympathize with the arrival condition of your order. It is very possible that your order was waiting in the line and happened to be there was a long line.

BTW Any goverment agency has never worked for us but works for Uncle Sam.
orchidnick
Original Author
11 years ago
3 plants totally 'browned out', 4 are OK. Wonderful! The grower said the 3 might come back, resprout from the tuber. They are under the bench in total shade.

Nick
Related Professionals
New Mexico Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · West Chester Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Azalea Park Landscape Contractors · Bristol Landscape Contractors · Fort Atkinson Landscape Contractors · Fort Payne Landscape Contractors · Glendale Heights Landscape Contractors · Lyndhurst Landscape Contractors · New Cassel Landscape Contractors · Converse General Contractors · Deer Park General Contractors · Marietta General Contractors · Medway General Contractors · Norwell General Contractors · Watertown General Contractors
bullsie
11 years ago
Sad to say there is either a single person doing all incomming (and possibly outgoing) for that entrance or those doing the inspecting have no idea what they are doing. You have to remember, when 9-11 occurred Homeland Security, in their infinite wisdom, felt the need to remove all the inspectors - trained in the field of horticulture/Agriculture etc - and moved them to human terrorism duty. They did this because they had no one trained in terrorism duty. So they trained the horticulture/Agriculture folks for terrorism (a dah moment!) duty.

"BTW Any goverment agency has never worked for us but works for Uncle Sam." Very true!