Mystery Seeds Spread Around the World
30 Luglio 2020 - 4:56PM
Dow Jones News
By Jesse Newman and Jacob Bunge
The case of the mystery seeds showing up in U.S. mailboxes from
shippers in China and other countries has gone global.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said consumers in at least 22
U.S. states and several other countries had received unsolicited
packages of seeds. Canada, the U.K. and Australia all are
investigating the matter.
The USDA, in a recorded radio broadcast released Wednesday
night, revealed the world-wide scope of the seed shipments after
thousands of people across the U.S. have reported receiving seeds
in the mail they didn't order. States from Washington to Virginia
have warned residents about the unsolicited packages, and the USDA
said earlier this week that it is collecting the packages and will
test seeds inside for anything of concern.
Unsolicited seed packages have been on the USDA's radar since at
least early June, according to state agriculture officials. Gary
Black, Georgia's commissioner of agriculture, said his department
contacted USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service after a
handful of state residents reported receiving such deliveries
around June 2. No further packages were reported in Georgia until
late last week, he said.
Osama El-Lissy, a deputy administrator for USDA's APHIS, said
the agency has so far identified 14 different species of seeds,
from mustard and morning glory to cabbage, rosemary and roses.
As of late Wednesday, there is no indication any of the seeds
carry pests or diseases, according to the USDA. Seeds analyzed by
the USDA so far have been identified as both horticultural and weed
seeds, according to state agricultural officials briefed on the
agency's preliminary findings.
USDA also reiterated it has no evidence the packages are
something other than a "brushing scam." In such scams, e-commerce
vendors on online retailers like Amazon.com Inc. pay "brushers" to
place orders for vendors' products, and packages with low-value or
no contents are shipped to strangers. Brushers then pose as the
buyers and post fake customer reviews to boost the vendor's
sales.
Multiple federal agencies are now investigating the seeds, from
the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection.
"These appear to be delayed packages due to Covid-19, not
brushing," said a spokesperson for Amazon in a statement. The
company said it is working with its sellers, customers and
government agencies to address concerns. USDA didn't immediately
comment.
Some recipients of the seed packages said they never ordered
seeds from the online retailing giant, or had received all the
seeds they ordered before receiving the unsolicited ones.
State agriculture officials said many people who reported
receiving packages had never ordered any seeds.
"Ninety-nine percent ordered no seeds," said Sid Miller,
commissioner of Texas' agriculture department.
Mike Strain, Louisiana's commissioner of agriculture and
forestry, said two FBI agents visited his department on Wednesday
to survey the more than 30 seed packages they have collected so
far. Representatives from USDA's Office of the Inspector General
will conduct a similar survey later this week, he said. State
inspectors are meanwhile working to collect hundreds more packages
from Louisiana, sent from countries including China, Uzbekistan and
the Solomon Islands. Other recipients say packages were sent from
the United Arab Emirates and other countries.
"The alphabet soup is definitely engaged," said Logan Wilde,
commissioner of the state's Department of Agriculture and Food,
adding that the FBI had requested a meeting with his department
this week. An FBI representative declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said
the agency is working closely with USDA and other agencies "to
target, detect, intercept, and thereby prevent the entry of these
potential threats before they have a chance to do any harm."
The spokesperson said CBP's agriculture specialists on a typical
day last year seized 4,695 prohibited plants, meats, animal
byproducts, and soils and intercepted 314 insect pests from across
the country.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency this week instructed
Canadians who had received such packages not to plant the seeds,
while the U.K. government said it has been investigating packages
of seeds marked as "ear studs" that people there received over the
last month. Australia's Department of Agriculture, Water and
Environment said they were aware of the U.S. seed packages and were
investigating whether the issue was occurring in Australia, a
spokeswoman said.
Chinese government officials had no immediate comment. China's
Foreign Ministry earlier this week said that mailing labels on the
seed packages were forged, and that China has asked the U.S. to
return the packages for investigation.
State agriculture officials say they are taking the situation
seriously due to concerns the seeds could be from invasive plant
species that might threaten native plants and crops, or potentially
introduce diseases or harm livestock.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 30, 2020 10:41 ET (14:41 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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