Re: [gardeners] USDA seed import permits
Margaret Lauterbach (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 20 Jul 2001 14:54:09 -0600
I rely on the post office to give me info on what's permitted. The only
time I've been turned down was sending Capsicum seeds to Argentina. They
can't send them here either. I suspect that's based on pique. Margaret L
At 12:03 PM 7/20/01 -0700, you wrote:
>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