TOWNSEND — Sadie Crawford has been building an oasis of flowers, fruits and vegetables in her backyard for some time now, so of course she gathers various seeds to plant. Many of those seeds she gets via shipments in packages from the likes of Amazon. Two weeks ago, one of her expected packages struck her as odd.
Crawford said Tuesday that she received an orange envelope with what she believed was Chinese writing on the return address and a stamp that read “earrings” on the packaging. Inside the envelope were two small baggies with no labels identifying what kind of seeds were in said baggies. She tried planting the first set of seeds, but they died due to the hot weather.
“None of the seeds looked familiar to me,” Crawford said. “I looked on Amazon and they were nothing like I had ordered before. I didn’t think there was any reason to worry.”
Crawford is no stranger to ordering seeds online. She said she’s ordered multiple flower seeds from Amazon, Etsy and other websites. She’s planted seeds to grow everything from watermelon to morning glory. She said Amazon packages typically take a long time to arrive since they come from international addresses while Etsy deliveries are usually sent from stateside locations.
Before she planted the second bag of seeds, Crawford learned she was not alone in receiving a random package. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been investigating reports of other mystery seed packages since late July, noting cases not only in the states but also in Canada, Australia and Europe. Officials claim the packages appear to have originated from China and have advised people not to plant the seeds. As of Aug. 3, the USDA urged residents to instead mail the packaging and seed packets to a state-mandated department location.
“It wasn’t until I killed the first batch of seeds that I heard about the mystery seeds,” Crawford said.
Crawford said that once she started hearing about more cases of mystery seed packages, she contacted the USDA and mailed the packaging to a USDA agency in Boston last Tuesday. She hasn’t heard of any other local cases of the mystery seeds.
In a press release issued on July 28, Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources said it had received several reports from state residents who also received mysterious packages of seeds from foreign locations. The state department advised residents who receive these packages to complete a form on the department’s website that will offer information to state plant regulatory officials, then department officials will contact residents with follow-up instructions.
