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WHEREAS, New Jersey is a major gateway and transportation corridor for the flow of global trade into and through the United States; with two seaports and a major airport, the imminent danger of introduction of foreign invasive plant pests and diseases is a constant threat to New Jersey’s agricultural industry and forest resources; and

WHEREAS, globalization is directly linked to the increased risk of introduction and detection of foreign pests and diseases entering the United States in imported goods or deliberate acts of bioterrorism; and

WHEREAS, when new pests or diseases enter our crop production system, our competitiveness and our ability to compete in global markets are effected by crop damage or loss, and the added costs of pest control, along with the loss of export markets due to phytosanitary trade issues; and

WHEREAS, New Jersey is largely a specialty crop state, which includes nursery, greenhouse, vegetables, fruits and berries;

WHEREAS
, new trade patterns can now create new pathways for the introduction of agricultural and environmental pests; and lower energy and labor costs in developing countries have lead to tremendous increases in propagative stock imported from abroad; and

WHEREAS
, the Department, in cooperation with the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service Plant Protection and Quarantine (APHIS-PPQ) has stepped up control actions for new foreign plant pest and diseases; and

WHEREAS, new plant pests and diseases have emerged over the recent years and include:

· Ralstonia solanacearum race 3 biovar 2 is a bacterial pathogen not known to occur in the US, which causes a wilt disease in several important agricultural crops such as potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, and was detected in New Jersey greenhouses that received imported geranium plants from Kenya and Guatemala in recent years.
· Vegetable transplants produced in Canada that are purchased by farmers in New Jersey could be a pathway for the introduction of Swede midge, a new foreign pest of cabbage and cole crops.
· The Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis, was discovered attacking maple trees in Jersey City, Hudson County in 2002; a second infestation was detected in Middlesex County and in Union County in 2004. Quarantines were established, and costly eradication programs were initiated in a cooperative effort with USDA-APHIS-PPQ to eradicate the Asian longhorned beetle. Successful control efforts in Jersey City lead to deregulation in 2005. In Middlesex County and in Union County, over 10,000 shade trees have been cut down and destroyed in the ongoing eradication program; and

WHEREAS, efforts to control Asian Longhorned Beetle and others pests such as emerald ash borer, citrus canker and sudden oak death are funded largely through USDA-APHIS-PPQ’s emerging plant pests budget line item; and

WHEREAS, thus, the lack of adequate funding hampers the ability of USDA-APHIS and the States to safeguard American plant resources and protect the nation’s competitiveness in global markets; and

WHEREAS, the National Plant Board, at its annual meeting in Biloxi, Mississippi on August 10th, 2005, requested that the U.S. Congress and the Office of Management and Budget provide full funding to USDA-APHIS-PPQ for Asian Longhorned beetle and the Emerald ash borer containment and eradication as identified by USDA-APHIS-PPQ, that USDA-APHIS’s Pest Detection line item should be funded at least $100 million, and PPQ’s Emerging Plant Pests line item should be funded at least $175 million.

THERFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the delegates to the 91st State Agricultural Convention, assembled in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on February 8, 2006, urge the U.S. Congress, the President of the United States and the Office of Management and Budget to provide full funding to USDA-APHIS-PPQ for Asian Longhorned beetle and the Emerald ash borer containment and eradication as identified by USDA-APHIS-PPQ; and that USDA-APHIS’s Pest Detection line item should be funded at $100 million, and that the Emerging Plant Pests line item be funded at least $175 million.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we urge the Governor, the Legislature and the Office of Management and Budget to provide $100,000 to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture for plant pest detection to safeguard New Jersey’s plant resources and protect the State’s competitiveness in global markets.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we urge the Governor, the Legislature and the Office of Management and Budget to appropriate $200,000 to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture to move forward in the efforts to eradicate the Asian Longhorned Beetle in Middlesex County and in Union County.