SODUS, N.Y. -- Agriculture, more than any other industry, is at the mercy of Mother Nature. This year, it's a drought.
"We haven't seen a dry spell like this in some number of years," said Jim Allen of the New York Apple Association.
However, for local apple growers there's another threat looming.
"It's too familiar," Allen said. "If it isn't a pest, it's a disease."
Allen says this concern lies in apples which could be imported from Poland. Sen. Charles Schumer visited a Wayne County orchard owned by Richard Endres, to discuss that threat.
Its roots are in trade. Under a deal with the European Union and after strict inspection against invasive species, seven countries are allowed to ship apples to the United States.
Poland wants in, but Schumer is asking that those plans be halted, unless apples imported from Poland are subject to that strict screening for invasive species.
"Poland wants us to waive the inspection," the senator said. "They don't want to go through the process. They want to quickly get in."
In Wayne County, the nation's fourth biggest apple producing county, growers are worried.
"This issue is down the road a year or two, but if you're not proactive or working on it ahead of time, all of the sudden you wake up with a problem," Allen said.
Schumer says the U.S. Department of Agriculture is on board with his concerns, but the State Department, he says, may be a different story, and it has nothing to do with agriculture.
"We're trying to put an anti-missile defense system, which I think is good, in Poland," Schumer said. "They say they'll back off on the anti-missile defense system unless we do this."
Schumer says Poland is an ally, but argues the U.S. economy can't lose out to diplomacy.
And apple growers, under the threat of invasive pests, have the most at stake.
"They're hearing the issues," Allen said. "So it's just a matter of them making the right decision."