Craig on Seedx

[Al Wootten]

Ths Sunday Washnigton Post Travel section reported:
Like to visit gardens abroad?  Bring back packs of seeds for souvenirs?  Better think
twice.  Seeds are not good souvenirs, as one reader discovered recently when an
inspector confiscated packets of future veggies bought in London's Kew Gardens.

The reader was told, she said, that a new policy requires that seed packets be
stamped as certified for import to the United States.  Actually, according to
the US Dept of Ag spokeswoman Anna Cherry, it's an old policy now being
aggressively enforced.

An increase in problems with citrus cankers, fly larvae, noxious weeds and such
has the department being vigilant.  To bring in seeds from abroad, you  myst get
a 'phyto sanitary certificate'which you could probably do if willing to spend your
vacation hassling with a foreign government's bureaucracy.

'People say, 'I can buy these at Home Depot, so why can't I bring them in?'"
said Cherry.  "The reason is that seeds brought in commerically are subjected to
tests and maybe treatments."  Besides, if you can buy them at Home Depot, just do
that.

---end
This was in the CoGo column, cogo at Washingtonpost.com

Doesn't seem to leave much latitude for seeds you cannot buy at Home Depot...

Clear skies,
Al