Governmental Regulation and Oversite in Dahlia Production

 Dahlias are subject to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, aka: PACA. PACA was enacted to ensure fair trade within the agricultural industry, establish and enforce codes for fairness in practices, and by helping solve problems between businesses.  The Agricultural Marketing Service, or AMS, runs PACA and fields phone calls from growers.  Within PACA, dahlias are listed under the ‘Edible Flowers’ list, which is quite interesting given the scarce information I found on people actually eating dahlia tubers while researching my folklore post (Perishable).

Dahlias are also identified as Specialty Crops by the USDA.  These are defined as “’fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture’” (Risk). Specialty Crops are overseen by the Risk Management Agency, or RMA, which seeks to provide risk management tools to those growers producing specialty crops. Dahlias are listed under the Specialty Crops list as ‘Annual Bedding Plants” (Risk).

There is a new bill that was introduced to Congress on April 4, 2023 seeking to “amend the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to establish a floriculture and nursery plant health initiative, and for other purposes” (H.R.).  The bill is called H.R. 1426.  Under the bill, the amendment to the above-mentioned act would establish a Floriculture and Nursery Plant Health Initiative, which would enforce and enact best practice codes across the floriculture industry, including the production of dahlias. Some of the points mentioned in the bill for the new initiative are “developing and disseminating science-based tools and treatments to combat plant pests and pathogens that impact floriculture and nursery crops; establishing area-wide integrated pest management programs in areas affected by, or areas at risk of being affected by, invasive plant pests or pathogens; surveying and collecting data on the production of, health of, and markets for floriculture and nursery crops; and conducting research on various factors that may contribute to resilient floriculture and nursery crop systems, and combating other serious threats to floriculture and nursery crops” (H.R.).   The fact that this bill is just now being presented tells me the floriculture industry itself has not had much government oversite up to this point, besides regulation on chemical use and worker safety. 

Overall, there is not much in regards to the governmental regulation of dahlias specifically.  I imagine growing food crops or livestock would have more much stringent governmental regulations than floriculture, which makes sense given that we don’t eat dahlias.  Or do we?

Citations:

"H.R. 1426 - Floriculture and Nursery Plant Health Initiative Act of 2023." Congress.gov. www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1426/text/ih. Accessed 23 April, 2023.

"Perishable Agriculture Commodities Act."  Agricultural Marketing Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/paca. Accessed 23 April, 2023. 

"Risk Management Agency Fact Sheet: Specialty Crops."  United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.rma.usda.gov/en/Fact-Sheets/National-Fact-Sheets/Specialty-Crops. Accessed 23 April, 2023.