Re: [gardeners] USDA seed import permits
Lon J. Rombough (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 20 Jul 2001 12:45:19 -0700
For What it's Worth, you may not even NEED to import seeds. If you haven't
seen the Seed Savers Exchange catalogs, they have more varieties than you
are ever likely to want, and all open pollinated, so you can save your own
seed. Go to their website at http://www.seedsavers.org to learn more.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, more, plus word on my grape book at
http://www.bunchgrapes.com
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>From: Kay Lancaster <kay@fern.com>
>To: <gardeners@globalgarden.com>
>Subject: [gardeners] USDA seed import permits
>Date: Fri, Jul 20, 2001, 12:03 PM
>
>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
>
>
>