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Those seeds from China: how a likely marketing tool fed conspiracy fears in the US
- The mailings this summer of unsolicited seeds to the US and elsewhere raised concerns of coronavirus and other contagions
- An investigation found many fake shipping labels, and experts said the packages fit the profile of ‘brushing’ operations to improve e-commerce rankings
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Onion farmer Chris Pawelski of Warwick, New York, was curious in July when he found a package in his postbox that he had not ordered.
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The shipping label indicated it came from Shenzhen, a technology hub in southern China. It was also printed with “wire connector” in English and “rings” in Chinese.
When Pawelski, 53, opened it, he found neither a wire connector nor jewellery, but a tiny plastic bag of mixed seeds – one of thousands of people around the world who received such seeds in recent months.
In the US, the seeds have drawn warnings from authorities amid speculation that they could be anything from a prank to bioweapons. In response to growing concerns, Amazon in September banned seed sales in the US from foreign sellers.
Pawelski said he was reminded of the US-China trade war that had hit many of his fellow farmers hard.
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“I have no beef with China, the whole trade war doesn’t affect me at all,” he said. “On the other hand, I know there is tension going on, you never know what people might be trying to do. So better be safe than sorry.”
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