Word: usda
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...decades ago, had been confined to a warm-weather belt between Lubbock, Texas and Beaufort, N.C. Invicta has managed to make a different but equally menacing adaptation. The species has begun nesting in supercolonies, insect megalopolises that contain 10 million to 20 million ants. Says Clifford Lofgren of the USDA'S Agricultural Research Service: "Larger colonies eat crops such as soybeans, potatoes and other vegetables. They have been known to kill young birds and small rodents. Fire ants will start to feed on anything or anybody that collapses from multiple stings...
...lack of vigilance that these formidable bugs have slipped across the border. The USDA employs 1,000 inspectors at 85 ports of entry nationwide. At J.F.K. ten officials examine as many as 2,000 crates of flowers, vegetables, seeds and cuttings every day and pass any pests they find to an insect identifier, a botanist and a plant pathologist for cataloging. An additional 60 inspectors are assigned to the airport's five international- arrivals areas, where they watch for illegal agricultural material in the bags of passengers filing through Customs. But increased travel and shipping have strained these resources...
...exotic bugs gain more of a foothold, USDA researchers have begun exploring new technologies. An X-ray machine that can find soft, fleshy objects like produce is now being evaluated at Miami International Airport. A stethoscope-like device that can pick up the munching sounds of insects as they feed inside fruits and grains is being tested at a USDA laboratory in ) Gainesville, Fla. Not all methods are mechanical. In New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, beagles have been trained to detect contraband flora. Jackpot, J.F.K.'s first beagle, has sniffed out oranges, papayas and two 10- lb. mangoes...
...soybeans, almost 40% more than at the same time last year. Kansas alone held 178.8 million bu. of grain sorghum, a livestock feed, almost 80% more than in June 1985. The U.S. is producing a huge excess of milk as well, a problem reduced only partly by the USDA's program this year to pay thousands of dairy farmers some $1.8 billion to send their herds to slaughter or export markets...
...lack the money to buy significant imports. This year total U.S. farm exports are expected to dip to $27.5 billion, down 12% from fiscal 1985 and 37% from 1981. At the same time, U.S. imports of such products as fish, fruit and vegetables have increased. Earlier this month the USDA announced that during May the U.S. became a net importer of farm products for the first time since 1959, except for occasions when dockworkers were on strike. May's farm deficit was $348.7 million. Although the USDA predicts a $7.5 billion agricultural-trade surplus for the year as a whole...