[gardeners] USDA seed import permits
Kay Lancaster (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 20 Jul 2001 12:03:32 -0700 (PDT)
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/seeds/seedweb.html
All the verbiage on that page notwithstanding, it took me about 10
minutes to fill out the paperwork for a 3 year seed import permit,
and a few weeks for it to show up in the mail. It's been about 6-7
years since I did the last one, but my recollection was that bringing
in seeds from a seedhouse was easy, as long as you weren't bringing in
"forbidden things". The permit I received was actually much broader
than what I'd asked for.
There's a lot more paperwork (and inspection) involved in bringing in
"forbidden seeds" like noxious weed seeds (these generally have to be
going to a research facility, with quarantined greenhouse).
I'd urge you to do the permit route... it's in all of our interests to
keep pests and diseases from being imported unknowingly. (That's a big
chunk of the reason why the USDA germplasm collections are generally
located in an area where that crop is not of major economic
importance... tomatoes are in Ames, IA, not Davis, CA, for instance.)
Kay Lancaster kay@fern.com