Hundreds of Americans planted those alarmingly mysterious Chinese seeds. Others ate them.

(Image credit: iStock/kazoka30)

published 8 September 2020

The same rules apply to a package of mysterious seeds found in your mail as do to a bag of fries discovered in a parking lot: As tempting as it is, don't open it, and most certainly do not eat what's inside.

Unfortunately, dozens of Americans didn't follow those basic life instructions when they received unsolicited packets of seeds seemingly coming from China a few months ago. State governments were deluged with thousands of questions from people who'd gotten the seeds, and had no idea how to respond when some people said they'd eaten them, Vice reports.

Vice's Jason Koebler requested records regarding the seeds from every state's department of agriculture, as well as from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and some USDA labs. From those records, Koebler found "tens of thousands of Americans received what they perceived to be Chinese mystery seeds in July." Many of them reasonably "panicked," quickly asking their governments what they should do, he wrote.

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Others maybe didn't panic enough. One woman in New Mexico called in to her state department of agriculture after reports of the mysterious seeds started circulating, and let it know that "like a dumbass, I planted them." "Everything that's in the garden where I planted them are having a hard time and are starting to die," she continued, asking for some advice. Officials told Vice they were overwhelmed with the number of calls, Facebook messages, and emails they'd gotten, and in several cases, had to figure out what to tell people who ate the seeds. Read more at Vice.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.