Actually, CBP isn't about PR. If this teaches people not to bring apples undeclared, then they have won. They got more educating of the public than they could have paid for.

The public will feel safer because of this?

OK.

Care to express a decipherable opinion? Did you picture them throwing an apple?

The few people that I know with GE, are SOOOO careful about following the requirements to the point of paranoia, especially when it comes to food. Given how fearful they are about it, I really do not understand how she failed to declare - its not even a question of forgetting because everyone is so hyperaware, even with processed foods, never mind agricultural goods which everyone knows are an issue. It was 100% her fault, stop blaming others and pay the fine. This falls under the category of strict liability, same as speeding. You might not have intended to be speeding, and they might not pull everyone over who is speeding or even fine everybody, but you can still be held accountable under the presumption that you "should have known."

The apple growers in our neck of the woods will feel safer. That's why we have the Dept of Ag regulations.

I have a bit of first hand experience seeing how crops, the environment and economies can be devastated by transporting produce between countries and even states, so I absolutely support any measures that are taken. This would be a good opportunity for the gov to educate the public with some real life examples of what has happened when foreign bacteria and insects are introduced.

Probably easier and faster to ban airlines from serving foreign fruit on their flights bound for the US, then.

"lol" is a pretty common internet abbreviation, meaning "laughing out loud"

As a resident of Japan, I'm very well aware of the influence farmers and the agricultural industry have on national government politics. Arguably Japan isn't better because of it, but that's a story for another thread.

Wouldn't be the easiest because of the public outrage. You don't HAVE to eat packaged fruit that can be carried off the plane.

Yep- last time I had a bottle of wine and about 10 different Belgian beers. Declared since it was over 1L in total. The CBP guy told me the 1L limit was only for alcohol, and you were allowed up to 1 *gallon* of wine and he didn't care about beer. If they actually published those numbers somewhere, I'd be fine checking "No", but I'd rather not get caught up and have to appeal to instructions a CBP officer at DFW may well have made up one afternoon.

Are you here only to provide snark or also to contribute any opinions on the substance?

The USDA and CBP regulations are focused on fresh foods/produce/grains and not items that have been cooked, packaged, canned, bottled, etc.

They want to look at items that can be harbingers of larvae, live beasties, and even carcasses.

Think med fly; think emerald ash borer; think European gypsy moth; think brown tree snake.

Each of these beasties have caused havoc with agriculture somewhere in the USA or in a US possession.

There was a seizure at BWI recently of Khapra beetles which are really, really bad news if they made it into the US grain network. The beetles were found in a bag of rice.

Aeroflot passes out roses to business class passengers just before landing at JFK.

I left mine on the plane, my seatmate did not. She was sent to secondary customs inspection because of the rose. The officer examined the rose closely, and let her keep it; did not fine her. I think customs inspectors have some wiggle room to decide enforcement action by themselves.