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Story Published: Jun 24, 2009 at 11:21 PM PDT

By Stacy Lilienthal

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A new agreement seeks to save Washington Cherries.

Congressman, Doc Hastings and the Chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee agreed to get more trained canines to screen airline cargo, including fruit like Washington cherries. Before the dogs, those cherries would have to be screened with U.V. light.

"Whenever you're going to shine U.V. lght on produce, especially on cherries, it's going to be hard on the cell wall," explains Sunnyside Ranch owner, Rebecca Hunt. "It's going to cause it to loose some of its integrity, which will then mean that the fruit is going to go ripe faster and rot a lot faster."

Hunt says she usually sells her organic cherries along the upper west coast, but says this change will keep a lot of the fruit that she sends to the east coast ripe longer.

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