Peters reintroduces bill to fight invasive fruit fly threat to orchards

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters reintroduced the bipartisan SWAT Act on Feb. 9, a Senate bill aimed at funding research and mitigation for spotted wing drosophila, the invasive insect that attacks unripe berry and stone fruit crops. For Grand Traverse County, where USDA counted 553 farms, 44,663 acres of land in farms and $51.864 million in products sold in 2022, the issue goes straight to orchard income, spray bills and the marketability of fruit.

The bill, listed by Congress.gov as S. 3810 in the 119th Congress, would amend the Plant Protection Act to establish a fund for spotted wing drosophila research and mitigation. Peters introduced it with Sens. Susan Collins, Jon Ossoff and Jeff Merkley, and it was referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. An earlier description of the effort put the fund at $6.5 million, to be managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Spotted wing drosophila matters in northern Michigan because it is not a harmless nuisance fly. It can damage crops, trigger quarantines, increase pest-control costs and threaten yields before fruit is ready to pick. In a region built around cherries and other tree fruit, those extra costs can hit growers twice: once in the field and again when fruit loses value at market.

The agricultural base is large enough to matter to the county balance sheet. Michigan State University’s county agricultural profile also placed Grand Traverse County at 553 farms and $51.86 million in market value of products sold. MSU Extension says tree fruit integrated pest management is meant to optimize economic and environmental sustainability for orchard growers, a reminder that pest control is already a central cost of doing business in the county’s orchards.

The cherry stakes are especially high. Michigan agriculture materials say the state produces about 70% of the country’s tart cherries, and the Traverse City area produces roughly 40% of Michigan’s tart-cherry crop. That makes a pest that targets berry and stone fruit crops more than a generic farm problem; it is a direct threat to one of the region’s most visible crops and to the packing, roadside sales and U-pick businesses that depend on a healthy harvest.

Peters framed the effort in terms of farm livelihoods, saying, “Throughout my time in Congress, I’ve repeatedly fought to support Michigan growers and protect their livelihoods,” and that he would keep pushing the bipartisan SWAT Act because the invasive species is “raising production costs and threatening their crops.” Grand Traverse County government has described its agricultural lands as an economically important resource supporting a locally important and globally unique agricultural sector, and that is exactly the sector the bill is meant to protect if research and response lag behind the pest.