Fox News quoted a spokesperson for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as saying that the mysterious seeds identified include ornamental plants, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, coriander, corn, basil, tomatoes, sunflowers, roses, emulsion, herbs, weeds...
Among the seeds that have been analyzed, none are at risk of causing harm. However, the USDA admitted that it only checked a small fraction of what it had received.
According to Deputy Manager for Quarantine and Plant Protection of the Plant Health Inspectorate (APHIS) under the US Department of Agriculture Osama El-Lissy, more than 9,000 emails have been sent to the USDA regarding the mysterious seeds. At a meeting on August 11, he revealed that the USDA has collected 925 seed packages so far.
Mr. El-Lissy said that people discovered 2 types of toxic weeds from 2 seed packages including pink silk and water spinach. Another non-permitted seed package is from leaf-eating hydrangeas, a common pests, found in the US. In addition, the USDA has not found any harmful seeds.
He emphasized that anyone who receives the mysterious seed package should contact the Department of Agriculture of their home state and send a report to the agency. After that, the authorities will contact APHIS for experts to evaluate the seeds.
Since most of the seeds are sent from China, the USDA is working with partners in China to help identify the senders of the above seed packages.
In addition, officials from the US Customs and Border Guard are working with the USDA to prevent the mysterious package seeds from being transported to the US.
The US Department of Agriculture and state officials have warned people against sowing these seeds, confirming that cases like this are not rare.
However, a man from Booneville, Arkansas, sowed the mysterious seeds he received from China a few weeks ago when government officials issued a warning. Currently, the trees are being prepared for destruction.
Officials identified the tree as squid, scientifically named Benincasa hispida.
Not only the US but many other countries such as Japan, Poland... also received mysterious seed packages with Chinese characters or sent from China.
