Categories: News

Washington Governor Jay Inslee unwittingly violates apple quarantine, spreading invasive maggots to areas scorched by fire

Out of the apple orchard and into the fire: Washington Governor Jay Inslee accidentally spread apple maggots into fire-scorched regions of his state when he brought along some home-grown honeycrisps on a visit, The New York Times reports. A “local pest control expert” noticed the maggot-infested apples, then set off a mad search to recover the governor’s fruit before the maggots escaped into the wild. (Fun fact: Because of the risk of maggot spread, Washington State has imposed an “apple quarantine,” meaning people are not allowed to transfer apples from western counties to the east.) Inslee unwittingly violated the quarantine—who among us hasn’t?—but luckily many of the maggot-infested apples have been recovered. 

Related Post
The Counter
Share
Published by
The Counter

Recent Posts

Grist acquires The Counter and launches food and agriculture vertical

Grist, an award-winning, nonprofit media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices,…

6 months ago

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

3 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

3 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

3 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

3 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

3 years ago