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<div>The fundamentals of on-farm bacterial disease management in plants have not changed for most crops since the 1930s. Exclusion and sanitation are used in almost every crop. Plant resistance is sometime available and when appropriate, insect vector management can reduce disease spread. Since the 1930s, phytosanitary regulations on production and import of plant propagules have been used to manage the spread of bacterial plant pathogens via planting material. The impact in disease reduction of these regulations can take decades to detect and long term datasets that can be correlated with regulatory changes are only available for a few crops, such as seed potato. With these datasets, the cost of implementing these regulations can be estimated and compared to potential disease losses. Examples of the impact of regulation on management of <i>Clavibacter</i>, <i>Ralstonia</i>, <i>Liberibacter</i>, and <i>Dickeya</i> in potato production over the past 80 years will be detailed. The socioeconomic impacts of these disease in potato, a vegetatively propagated crop, will be compared to the impacts of diseases caused by these same bacterial genera in true seed crops. Potential unintended negative socioeconomic effects of regulations targeted to disease management, particularly as they impact small farms, will also be presented.  </div>