USDA sets new rules for Idaho potato field quarantines

摘要

U.S. officials have released a new plan involving methods to deal with a microscopic pest in southeastern Idahothat threatens the state's billion-dollar industry that supplies a third of the nation's potatoes.The Department of Agriculture late last week released the final rule that takes effect at the end of January. It setsout yearslong criteria for killing off the pests and reopening quarantined fields to production.The new rule follows a 2018 court decision in a lawsuit filed by potato farmers that found the U.S. governmentillegally quarantined some Idaho potato fields infested with the pale cyst nematode discovered in 2006. Farmerswith quarantined fields aren't allowed to sell potatoes grown in them.