Imagine my surprise learning about them by pulling up to one. I don’t think it was even near the CA/OR, but like 50 miles into Cali on the interstate. All of a sudden I see an officer flagging me at a little booth, I figured it was an emergency ahead or maybe I ended up on a toll road? The first thing he says to me was something along the lines of ‘Got any fruit or vegetables in the vehicle?’ And I just respond ‘I’m sorry, what?’ He must get that a lot, he pretty much waved me through as he was explaining.
I brought a prepackaged fruit cup my next trip just to see what would happen but I ended up doing the coastal route and never got stopped going that way.
Wow it’s true: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Border_Protection_Stations
I don’t think any other US state has checkpoints. This is a surprise to me.
California grows like 40% of the vegetables for the entire country. So they’re very protective of their agriculture.
Florida has a checkpoint for plants and possible invasive species, definitely not for firetrucks helping people though.
Bugs trying to get in to Florida?
Florida has one of the best competitive scenes in the western hemisphere.
Unlike California, Florida’s agriculture checkpoint only stops commercial vehicles.
Sounds like it’s basically the same as CA then.
It’s the only other one. But Florida only has commercial vehicles pull in
And that’s rarely enforced, at least around here.
There are. Especially for commercial vehicles:
A lot of states have checkpoints for vehicles towing boats. Need to check for invasive water creatures.
Kentucky has them sometimes for horse papers
Imagine my surprise learning about them by pulling up to one. I don’t think it was even near the CA/OR, but like 50 miles into Cali on the interstate. All of a sudden I see an officer flagging me at a little booth, I figured it was an emergency ahead or maybe I ended up on a toll road? The first thing he says to me was something along the lines of ‘Got any fruit or vegetables in the vehicle?’ And I just respond ‘I’m sorry, what?’ He must get that a lot, he pretty much waved me through as he was explaining.
I brought a prepackaged fruit cup my next trip just to see what would happen but I ended up doing the coastal route and never got stopped going that way.
They’ve been a thing as long as I can remember