![]() ![]() One seed recipient noted that they “salted ground” after planting some of their seed packet. “Planted one pack and ate the oregano that grew. “She indicated that she planted the bulbs,” another states. ![]() Planted some and clover came up,” one report says. Will burn them if they come.”Ī spreadsheet of plant receivers compiled by North Carolina shows that in that state alone, nearly 1,300 people reported getting the seeds. I am still waiting on at least 4 other orders of seeds. “If I had known these seeds were going to originate from China, I would not have purchased them from Amazon. They turned Black and green mold, so I threw them away,” one person wrote. “I planted them in my hydroponic system in my home, I thought they were the strawberry seeds I ordered from Amazon. “Our plant person was not able to keep up with the calls.”Īccording to a spreadsheet compiled by Michigan, 677 people filed official complaints with the state about the receipt of unsolicited seeds 30 reported planting them. “People were planting them and have planted them,” Jennifer Holton, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, told Motherboard in a phone call. “There were 5-600 Facebook posts, direct messages …” “Our call center was completely overwhelmed with calls,” Brad Deacon, director of the office of legal affairs for Michigan’s Department of Agriculture, said. In the initial days of this mystery, the agricultural departments of many states were overwhelmed with emails and calls from residents who were unsure of what they’d gotten in the mail and what they should do with the seeds. “Yes,” David Stebbings, an officer with the SITC, emailed when alerted by authorities in New Hampshire about the seeds, “it’s starting to explode.” The USDA’s Smuggling Interdiction and Trade Compliance group (SITC), Customs and Border Protection, and the FBI began investigating. Some people ate the seeds, according to the documents. Now, where I planted them, and I remember where I planted them, everything that's in the garden where I planted them are having a hard time and are starting to die … I really don't know what to do at this point, so could somebody call me back and give me a little bit of direction about this? I know I'm a dumbass."Ĭalls like this were not unusual. "And now, I've been battling this for a couple weeks. ![]() I thought, 'Oh cool, maybe Burgess seeds or one of the seed companies sent me some seeds.' And, umm, like a dumbass, I planted them, not knowing there was a problem," a woman in New Mexico said in a voicemail left with the state's department of agriculture in late July. I guess China because it looks like Chinese writing. "About a month ago, I did receive seeds from China. Many of these seed receivers, regardless of location, panicked. Others, like New Mexico, had roughly 100 recorded seed receivers. Some states, like North Carolina, had more than 1,000 people contact the department of agriculture having received unsolicited seeds. Conservatively, it is safe to say that tens of thousands of Americans received what they perceived to be Chinese mystery seeds in July. Thousands of pages of emails, spreadsheets, reports, and documents, as well as audio voicemail recordings, have been trickling in for the last month, and they have been enlightening in many ways.īased on documents I’ve read, the scale of the mystery seed operation was much larger than I had originally suspected and than was originally reported. I also filed requests with the USDA and several of its labs. To do this, I filed 52 freedom of information requests one with each of the departments of agriculture (or their state-level equivalent) in all 50 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico. Since the seed story originally broke, I have been obsessed with learning more. According to documents obtained by Motherboard from state departments of agriculture, at least hundreds, perhaps thousands of Americans planted the seeds.
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