Louisiana Agriculture Officials Talk about Safety Measures with Mystery China Seeds
By Mya Hudgins, KTVE
MONROE, LA – Mysterious seeds from China have made their way to the UK, all 50 US states, and even northeast Louisiana. The United States Department of Agriculture has been investigating the seed and believe it is all part of a big scam. NBC 10/ FOX 14 talked with Louisiana agriculture officials and has the dirt on these seeds.
“Do not open the seed packets,” said Dr. Mike Strain, Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry.
Many in the United States have opened their mailboxes to find a mystery package from china…filled with seed. Almost 4,000 seed packets have been acquired from all 50 states. For Louisiana, calls started coming in, July 23rd.
“Up to today we have had over 900 calls and we have picked up over 300 packets of seed. We are sending those to the USDA,” said Commissioner Strain.
The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry says 750 seeds have been identified, everything from rosemary seeds to mint seeds. While there is still a lot of unknown with the seed, they have found some disease threats that could be present.