While the world is still struggling with the ravages of coronavirus, a new threat is at our doorstep.
Recently, farmers from various countries like America, Canada, Japan, and Poland received white and yellow packets containing some seeds with the warning of not planting them.
These suspicious unsolicited seeds are allegedly from China. This has sparked the fear of bioterrorism. It is widely believed that these mysterious seeds might be an invasive species that would destroy the natural ecosystem of the area.
However, China has already spoken about this matter. Its Foreign Ministry has issued a statement in which it said that those postmarks indicating a Chinese origin are all forged.
Thus, people were asked not to plant those species. Seeds were sent to agricultural research laboratories for further investigation of their nature and origin.
But as expected, some people did plant those seeds merely out of curiosity. One such man is Doyle Crenshawn, who lives in Booneville, Arkansas. Here is what happened.
American man plants mysterious seeds from China
“We … planted the seeds just to see what would happen,’’ Booneville resident Doyle Crenshawn said. He used to come and put Miracle-Grow and witnessed the plant grow like crazy. It seemed like an “unstoppable plant”.
The plant bore a weirdly large white fruit from orange flowers, having an uncanny similarity with squash.
In this matter, Scott Bray of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture said, “Our concern is from an invasive-pest aspect: These seeds could introduce an invasive weed or an invasive insect pest or a plant disease”.
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In a video posted on the department’s official website, Ryan Quarles, Kentucky’s agriculture commissioner, said, “At this point in time we don’t have enough information to know if this is a hoax, a prank, an internet scam or an act of agricultural bioterrorism”.
USDA urged its citizens to contact the nearby plant regulatory official or APHIS State plant health director in case you receive these unidentified seeds.
High probability of being a “brushing scam”
It is a type of fraud in which producers buy their own products and ship the items to a real address overseas and write positive reviews of their products through fake buyer accounts. It helps in increasing the rating of their products significantly.
In this matter, the Washington State Department of Agriculture said on Facebook that all this may be a part of an “agricultural smuggling racket”.
Not much is known about it now. All the official statements right now just appear to be some skimpy conjectures.
Hence, we all must wait and see what happens next in this engrossing “whodunit” case.
Image credits: Google Images
Sources: Business Insider, The U.S. Sun, Yahoo and many more
Find the blogger: @lisa_tay_ari
This post is tagged under: Agriculture, American man plants Chinese seeds, bioterrorism, china, Chinese seeds, Doyle Crenshawn, ecosystem, Invasive species, large squash-like fruit, Mysterious Chinese seeds, seeds, seeds from China, smuggling, terrorism, Unstoppable fruit, USDA, weird fruit, mystery seeds from china, bioterrorism, agricultural terrorism, destroy biodiversity, destroy natural ecosystem, postal, posted, mailed, couriers, mysterious seeds from china, warning, not to plant them, who planted them
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