{"id":104563,"date":"2020-07-28T18:18:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T01:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=104563"},"modified":"2020-07-28T18:19:57","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T01:19:57","slug":"usda-urges-citizens-not-to-plant-investigating-unsolicited-seed-packages-from-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=104563","title":{"rendered":"USDA Urges Citizens Not to Plant &#038; Investigating Unsolicited Seed Packages from China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;USDA is aware that people across the country have received suspicious, unsolicited packages of seed that appear to be coming from China. USDA\u2019s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Customs and Border Protection, other federal agencies, and State departments of agriculture to investigate the situation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/116427860_10158710096607299_5390320987208138436_o.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"555\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-104564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/116427860_10158710096607299_5390320987208138436_o.jpg 640w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/116427860_10158710096607299_5390320987208138436_o-300x260.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/116427860_10158710096607299_5390320987208138436_o-570x494.jpg 570w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/116427860_10158710096607299_5390320987208138436_o-225x195.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/USDA.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"219\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10595\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/USDA.jpg 320w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/USDA-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/USDA-80x55.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>USDA urges anyone who receives an unsolicited package of seeds to immediately contact their State plant regulatory official or APHIS State plant health director. Please hold onto the seeds and packaging, including the mailing label, until someone from your State department of agriculture or APHIS contacts you with further instructions. Do not plant seeds from unknown origins.<\/p>\n<p>At this time, we don\u2019t have any evidence indicating this is something other than a \u201cbrushing scam\u201d where people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false customer reviews to boost sales. USDA is currently collecting seed packages from recipients and will test their contents and determine if they contain anything that could be of concern to U.S. agriculture or the environment.<\/p>\n<p>USDA is committed to preventing the unlawful entry of prohibited seeds and protecting U.S. agriculture from invasive pests and noxious weeds. Visit the APHIS\u2019 website to learn more about USDA\u2019s efforts to stop agricultural smuggling and promote trade compliance.<\/p>\n<p>Source USDA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;USDA is aware that people across the country have received suspicious, unsolicited packages of seed that appear to be coming from China. USDA\u2019s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Customs and Border Protection, other federal agencies, and State departments of agriculture to investigate the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/116427860_10158710096607299_5390320987208138436_o.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}