Produce inspection California

D.E.Bishop wrote:
pira114, The inspection stations existed long before the Mediterranean fruit fly. I remember then when we were still driving a 1946 Chevy. We had that car until 1953. There have been restrictions and inspections since the 1930's or early 40's

Correct. Didn't mean to imply they didn't. Invasive insects from other parts of the US have long been a problem for Ca agricultural. I meant only to illustrate what was probably the worst of the insect infestations (as far as I've heard anyway), and that the inspection stations were very important then.

If a new batch of any insect threatens our agricultural as bad as back then, you'll see more stringent inspections compared to the relative ease of getting through one now.

My post was also countering the "Ca has too many regulations" posts. It does. WAY too many. But this isn't one of the bad ones. This one has been very necessary at different times throughout our history.

pira114, The inspection stations existed long before the Mediterranean fruit fly. I remember then when we were still driving a 1946 Chevy. We had that car until 1953. There have been restrictions and inspections since the 1930's or early 40's

It's because of fruit flies. I'm old enough to remember, and it directly affected me and my family.

I'm in the Sierras now, but grew up in what a lot of you call Silicon Valley. We called it Blossom Valley back then. Because it was all orchards. Orchards we worked hard in.

The fruit flies arrived. Not a native bug for California and it decimated entire orchards. It caused several orchards around us to cut EVERY SINGLE TREE down. We lost about 75% of ours, but we lived. Well, the first year anyway.

Then the helicopters came. Spraying God knows what over entire cities and agricultural areas. I'm talking apocalyptic looking FLEETS of helicopters. It was serious. Hundreds of farms and orchards were devistated by this tiny little fly. We had curfews ordered to keep people from being outside during late night spraying. It was a bit scary really. They sprayed for days and days.

And you know what? It worked mostly. A lot of orchards and farms survived. Or began anew. For us, the cost was too much to bear and we lost it all. Every penny gone. Forced to sell the land for pennies on the dollar just to be able to break even.

So yeah, the checkpoints were VERY necessary back then, and still are today. But can you really stop every vehicle and inspect it??? No, and no one wanted to. They seriously relied on public education and cooperation back then. The education part seems to have disappeared, but those inspection stations are mostly there on the honor system of being honest and simply having a place to throw away fruit that might be harboring fruit fly eggs.

Those flies never really left by the way. They're still here. They're just manageable. The stations help them from getting out of control again.

Please, if you're traveling here, don't bring fruit in. You can't see the eggs. They won't hurt you to eat either, so you'd be surprised how much fruit you eat has those eggs in it. You probably don't want to know. But it's a real and serious issue. And was an actual emergency to the economy of California back then. Don't want to think of what could happen now

SCVJeff, not to change the subject but, knowing your live up North from us, are you near the fire? We ate out at one of the trendy restaurants here in ER last night and it was like we had a few snow flurries the ash was so thick.

I assume you are actually in SCV to the West of the fire and not in the Aqua Dulce area but thought I check.

More in line with the direction this thread has taken, I got to thinking about all the CA Bashing on here and it is kind of comical. I did a little research on facts presented here and with the exception of the AG inspections, you can find several states that have the same or bigger problems as does CA. Pick a complaint and Google it in the context of "What State Has..." and you will find someplace worse than here.

I am still upset by being called a communist, we had dinner last night with a friend from a former Communist Block Country and she loves CA. She follows our travels and can't wait to follow behind us to our favorite spots with her friends visiting from home. She feels our State is spectacular and people who live here are so happy and carefree. I guess it is a matter of life experiences and where you were raised.

We went into California via a backdoor and saw signs telling us to visit the closest ag inspection station...no directions, no other signs...WHAT? So we ignored it and decided to take our knocks if need be...probably not recommended but!

Leaving California, we saw lines of traffic coming back into the state wondering what it was (accident?)...nope just putting everyone through ag inspection on a sunday night.

I have no desire to visit california anytime soon. Like ny, too many people, too many rules in this state, ga$, etc. The nice thing is they had some pretty awesome hiking and scenery and some hot springs. And, they nickel and dime you to death on parking, etc.

So good luck.

dodge guy wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:

D.E.Bishop wrote:
It is amazing, someone who does not know when to capitalize or how to spell has to bash California. We have our problems, but, we have more people living in this state from other states...

Got the idea. Like Mom used to say, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".

It has to be general lack of education. They also probably have no clue the produce that's grown, and they eat coming from the Central Valley while they're suffering in 10 degree weather. It's amazing to be how narrow minded some on this board are. California regulations and SOME laws are ridiclous, but that doesn't mean the entire population lines up behind it. On the other hand, some people like to whine even when they have no clue.

That's what we're saying! The fruit we have on board that was bought in the Midwest and are now vacationing with in California where it was shipped from!

But who know what exotic bugs have attached themselves ? I get what they are trying to do, but the way commerce is these days, vehicle carry is the last thing I'd worry about. Those checks are way better to catch wood beetles

Living in San Francisco Area I crossed the inspection 3 times this year.
Last time with new purchase - a car with no front licence plate and temporary tags on the rear.
They wave me trough.
Routinely -from fruits and veggies I am carrying bananas, but did not hesitate to smuggle potatoes as those in NV are not only cheaper, but taste better,.
Years ago I was importing a motorhome to CA. They hold me for 1/2 hr going under the coach and checking for moths.
They let me go without a problem, when later I discover the East Coast motorhome had dozens of moths nests. None of them I found active, but I would expect a trained inspector would investigate them.
I put the agriculture inspection in the the same box with smog check for diesels in CA.
No tailpipe probe, no checking for exhaust poof, no rollers involved.
"Have a nice day" that cost me $60-80 every 2 years for each of our diesels.
BTW I moved 10,000 miles to live in California, what is several generations of adventure.
When I plan to move for retirement -can't imagine better place to live and work.
Not saying you can't find margin for improvement, like driving slowly on fast lanes.
Can we talk about importing bed bugs from Africa now?

I've been stopped going into CA but it has never been more than a minor inconvenience.

The state has some wonderful places and friendly people. A great place to visit, but I (personally) wouldn't want to live there.

tplife wrote:

stevenicol wrote:

thirtydaZe wrote:
seems its best to just aviod this rotten state all together.

...you really don't mean this right? California has the best cops, spectacular beaches, epic mountains, forests with giant trees, great food, and happy sunny people.

I moved here in '78, we had the best schools, best highway system, best growing biotech/pharma community, decent wages, reasonable property taxes, fair civil rights and a governor named Brown. Now we have (almost) the worst schools, crumbling highway system, collapsing economy, dropping wages, new fees for everything imaginable, far fewer civil rights, and...wait for it... again, a governor named Brown whose public service union allowance the first time around gave us what we've got now. Some of us stay here to finish our kid's education and tell the story as a warning to other states visitors... :)

I'm sorry the state has treated you so poorly. I mean that most sincerely without a drop of sarcasm.

We moved to SoCal 6 years ago, we love the sate, have great jobs, wonderful wages, amazing education for the kids, my property value has tripled, and we routinely enjoy all 13 of our socialist national parks in a day's drive, not to mention Big Sur and the rest. I love California and I personally welcome everyone else in the country to come for a visit. I'll be your tour guide no matter what side of the fence you hang out on politically. :) If a person can drive into Yosemite and they can't stop thnking about politics, then nothing can make that person happy.

Coincidentally, all that fruit we are talking about comes from one of the most conservative regions in the entire United States. Apparently even the conservatives in California are communists if some of the negative comments on this thread are to be believed. ;)

Most of the time I'm waved through. Occasionally asked what fruits/vegetables I'm carrying and I've never had to turn any over. I don't carry firewood.

Just to be sure you may not want to enter CA with a ton of produce onboard.