Posted on 08/03/2020 7:53:32 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
It was just about week ago that we highlighted a mysterious trend that was sweeping the U.S.: citizens were receiving unsolicited packages of seeds, with return addresses from China, for apparently no reason at all.
Now, the U.S. has started to identify "14 types of plants" that the seeds belonged to, revealing a mix of ornamental, fruit and vegetable, herb and weed species, according to the NY Times. Cabbage, hibiscus, lavender, mint, morning glory, mustard, rose, rosemary and sage have all been identified.
Osama El-Lissy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said: This is just a subset of the samples weve collected so far.
Art Gover, a plant science researcher at Penn State University said the "risk is low" of the plants being involved in biological warfare, but that the seeds "can be troublesome because they can introduce problematic weeds and diseases".
Lisa Delissio, a professor of biology at Salem State University in Massachusetts, said: "If any of the unidentified seeds turned out to be invasive species, they could displace native plants and compete for resources and cause harm to the environment, agriculture or human health."
Bernd Blossey, a professor in the department of natural resources at Cornell University commented: Obviously planting rosemary or thyme in your garden isnt something that will endanger our environment. But there may be other things in there that have not been identified yet. Any time you gain something unknown, my suggestion is burning them, not even throwing them in the trash.
As of now, it seems too early to tell whether or not something nefarious is taking place. But, like Blossey says, we wouldn't take any chances either. In our prior report, we suggested the mailings could be some sort of agricultural warfare brewing between the U.S. and China - where agriculture remains a key point of trade tensions - and where a cold war of sorts appears to be bubbling up under the surface.
After multiple reports in the U.S. media regarding the seeds, China's Foreign Ministry responded last week by saying that China Post (the country's state owned mail service) "has strictly followed regulations that ban the sending and receiving of seeds," according to Bloomberg.
Further, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin says that the parcels were "forged" and "not from China". China has supposedly requested that the U.S. mail the seeds back to China so they could investigate further.
We noted last week that the response is anything but re-assuring. We're not postmaster generals but we find the idea of being able to forge mailing labels - and get products to their final destination - in this day and age where even the decrepit U.S. postal service is mostly digital, as a difficult one.
Recall, we wrote days ago that Americans across the country were starting to report receiving unsolicited packages of different types of seeds that they didn't order - and don't know anything about - at their door. The return address on the packages is always from China.
The Washington State Department of Agriculture wrote about the phenomenon on their Facebook page on July 24, 2020 and said that the seeds are being shipping in packaging that identifies the contents as jewelry. Similar advisories have been issued in Virginia, Utah, Kansas, Arizona and Louisiana.
Facebook users have been adding photos in the comments section of the post sharing photographs of seeds they have received from China. Its not a joke. I got some the other day!!! one user commented, stating that the package identified the contents as a "Rose flower stud earring".
Looks like its all across the country, stated an Indiana resident who also received seeds in the mail unsolicited.
At least 40 residents in Utah were said to have been mailed the unsolicited packages, according to the Daily Mail. The Kansas Department of Agriculture and the Arizona Department of Agriculture also addressed the phenomenon, as did the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, who said:
"Right now, we are uncertain what types of seeds are in the package. Out of caution, we are urging anyone who receives a package that was not ordered by the recipient, to please call the LDAF immediately. We need to identify the seeds to ensure they do not pose a risk to Louisianas agricultural industry or the environment."
There had been similar reports from Virginia's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. "The seeds have yet to be identified, but officials speculate that the seeds may be of an invasive plant species and are advising residents not to use them," Fox News reported.
"Taking steps to prevent their introduction is the most effective method of reducing both the risk of invasive species infestations and the cost to control and mitigate those infestations," VDACS wrote in a press release.
Public Asked To Report Receipt of any Unsolicited Packages of Seeds. Learn more: https://t.co/RY9u4nR1QK pic.twitter.com/ZzNaO2ZaYz VDACS (@VaAgriculture) July 24, 2020
Twitter is also littered with reports of people receiving these seeds:
We have received 2 of those packages here in Indiana. One from China, and one from Kyrgystan. pic.twitter.com/Fm6CBxf1mD Don ⭐⭐⭐ (@SmallTownIndy) July 26, 2020
The Washington State Department of Agriculture has advised people on its Facebook page:
1) DO NOT plant them and if they are in sealed packaging (as in the photo below) dont open the sealed package.
2) This is known as agricultural smuggling. Report it to USDA and maintain the seeds and packaging until USDA instructs you what to do with the packages and seeds. They may be needed as evidence.
Anyone who has received seeds in the mail can report them to the United States Department of Agriculture by visiting their website here. The site says:
If individuals are aware of the potential smuggling of prohibited exotic fruits, vegetables, or meat products into or through the USA, they can help APHIS by contacting the confidential Antismuggling Hotline number at 800-877-3835 or by sending an Email to SITC.Mail@aphis.usda.gov.
USDA will make every attempt to protect the confidentiality of any information sources during an investigation within the extent of the law.
"Pull my finger," he added.
There is nothing left to throw
Of ginger, lemon, indigo
Coriander stem and rose of hay
Has a nice yellow flower.
I didn’t get my free seeds. Where do I sign up?
Do they carry diseases?
Inoculated with some fungus or blight?
Dry run for mail in voting fraud?
Put the seeds in a metal container, stick in an oven, and roast at 400°F for an hour. That should sterilize the seeds, if not turn them in carbon.
“Osama El-Lissy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service....”
RE: Well, that gives me the warm & fuzzies - NOT!
Osama is a very common name in the Middle East.
I bet you’re also nervous about anybody named Muhammad...
That was my thinking like the last season of the Last Ship, a genetically altered disease for plants that can be spread by a variety of plants and them pollination.
Like the original stat’s for COVID 19 but for plants
I know one of the leading theories on this is that the Chinese are trying to hurt us by getting invasive species to take root and grow.
The thing is, couldn’t they achieve that by just having some Chinese smuggle in seeds and going out into the edges of fields by the treelines at midnight and planting the seeds?
Or giving some packets to some schizophrenic homeless people and telling them they are magic seeds that will grow gold and telling them to go out in some fields to plant them?
My concern is that these are genetically modified in some way to that when they pollinate with regular plants, would produce sterile offspring and the plant species could become very rare if not extinct.
Probably just simple gmo seeds with Genetic use restriction technology (AKA GURT or Terminator genes):
Terminator is the popular name given to the Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT) that essentially shuts off the reproductive abilities of seeds, making second generation seeds sterile. According to many blog posts on anti-GMO websites, genetically engineered seeds are sterile due to agro-corporations developing terminator genes, which force farmers, particularly in the developing world, to buy seeds from one season to the next. In fact, the most controversial patent is shared by the US Department of Agriculture and no GMO seeds are sterile. The patents related to GURT have expired.
I could send them Tanzy Ragwort. The have to buy oil tankers of roundup to try and kill that stuff.
Nuke the bastards.
Now.
L
Anthrax would be bad.
This whole thing is Chinese people seasoning their e-commerce accounts on some Chinese e- commerce site so they can rank higher because they have more us based orders. It is just black hat SEO.
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