2020’s Latest Quirk – Mystery Seeds from China
Even though it’s slightly only half-way over, nothing about 2020 should surprise anyone anymore, writes Eric Sfiligoj at CropLife. The year started with terrible Australian wildfires (remember them?) and quickly dovetailed into a global pandemic. From this, new terms such as “social distancing” and “remote learning” have become commonplace, death tolls have mounted, and face mask debates have ensued (at least here in the U.S.). Given all the domino effects these “new normals” have had on society thus far, 2020 has created an overall atmosphere of uncertainty and lightning quick societal changes.
But now, another surprise has cropped up in the long list of 2020 surprises – mystery seeds. For a few months now, seemingly random residents across the country have been receiving packages of unknown seeds. According to most accounts, these originate from China.
At the moment, no one is quite sure what to make of these mysterious seeds. According to some sources, it’s possible that the seeds are part of a “brushing” campaign, in which online retailers send out unsolicited packages and use the fake sales to improve the seller’s ratings in the marketplace. But state agricultural and environmental leaders don’t want to take any chances. As for the seeds themselves, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has identified some of them as a mixture of ornamental, fruit and vegetable, herb, and weed seeds.
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