Remember this past summer when people from all over the country were receiving strange seeds in the mail sent mainly from China? Well, the USDA has finished their investigation into the situation which worried a lot of those in the agriculture industry. The investigation has been going on ever since thousands of people reported receiving mysterious packages of seeds with no explanation.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service found no evidence of anyone purposely trying to hurt the U.S. ag industry or mess with it in any way. During the investigation, they found that some seeds were sent to random citizens and others were purchased by people, but buyers didn’t realize the seeds were from China. According to Reuters, USDA’s update listed flowers, herbs, and vegetables. Some of those including mustard, cabbage, morning glory, rose, hibiscus, mint, rosemary, and lavender.
The department thinks that the strange seeds were sent to individuals as part of a “brushing” scam. This is something people online will do at times to increase transactions from others on their website. The good thing is that there luckily wasn’t anything to worry about.