North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

For those of you who think APHIS is a bunch of idiots, here's an interview 
with some bee expert who told APHIS that he wanted to quarantine the bees 
they'd decided to let in from Australia.  We hadn't had new bees brought 
into the US for 83 years, so he said let's quarantine them for awhile, then 
inspect them.  APHIS said if he insisted on doing that, he would be 
interfering with commerce and profits, and he'd be sued.  Sooo, I wonder 
what the net gains and losses add up to for the American beekeeping industry 
resulting from the importation of Australian bees?  I believe in China that 
the APHIS top guys would be publicly beheaded.
   Now that I think about it, it seems like APHIS has been very quiet 
during all the cries of consternation regarding CCD.  Are they feeling a bit 
guilty about their decision to let bees into this country with less 
background checking or inspection than the average tourist endures?   I hope 
you all can access this link: 
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1323&category=Environment