Brushing (e-commerce)

In July 2020, thousands of packages of seeds marked with false descriptions such as earrings were received all over the world from China. Many early reports traced the story to a Facebook post by a woman in Tooele, Utah, which had drawn many of her neighbors with the same experience.[7][8][9][10] The mysterious seeds caused biosecurity concerns but were thought to be another brushing scam. Authorities such as DEFRA and USDA's APHIS[11] investigated and Kentucky agriculture commissioner Ryan Quarles said: "We don't have enough information to know if this is a hoax, a prank, an internet scam or an act of agricultural bioterrorism". China Post said that the mailing labels had been forged while Taiwan intended to fine a Chinese logistics company for transshipping contraband.[12]

In September 2020, an article by Motherboard which summarized the result of Freedom of Information Act requests relayed that a Utah lab reported, "Our seed lab has identified the following: rose, amaranth (not Palmer), 2 mints, False Horse Balm, Self Heal, Lespedeza and Sweet Potato."[13]

In late September 2020 the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food announced that Amazon had agreed to a voluntary US inbound seed quarantine, wherein they would delist seeds from outside the US that any seller attempted to sell into the US.[14] The American Seed Trade Association gave a statement saying that this was their understanding also.[15]

On September 29, 2020, the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture said it had so far received 36 complaints about unsolicited seeds. These reports came in across eight states.[16]

Alibaba and eBay's plant security practices were investigated by James Comer, Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, at the start of October 2020.[17]

Seed mailings occurred again, following a hiatus, in October 2020 in Marion County, Alabama.[18]

In November 2020, the Arizona Department of Agriculture said that seed mailings had slowed but not stopped. Most reports were from the Phoenix and Tucson areas, although the entire state had reports. The seeds were ornamentals, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and wheat. The seeds were noted for their potential to spread viruses and other diseases.[19]

In November 2020, the Australian Department of Agriculture said that they had received 228 reports and had decided to start using a new x-ray system. Unlike the existing x-ray scanners used at borders, these would use automated processing of the x-ray images themselves, which the DoA expected to yield more thorough results.[20] For seeds that were not caught by the scanners, the Department asked Australians to report seed mailings using a website.

In February 2021, USDA APHIS issued new rules regarding buying and selling seeds and live plants from other countries.[21][22]

Amazon has stated that all of the orders it looked into were legitimate orders, in statements in summer 2020 and March 2021; a specific brusher or set of brushers responsible for the seed orders were never identified, and the USDA had not found "direct evidence of brushing".[23] By the beginning of October 2020, the USDA and Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry considered the mystery largely solved, blaming both real seed orders that were merely mailed from locations the buyers did not expect, and truly unsolicited mailings.[24] An Atlantic investigation in 2021 found that many of the people reporting unsolicited seeds had seed orders in their Amazon ordering history they had forgotten about, often many months before and shipping long-delayed, or were part of "gift groups" with public wish lists that others could order items for them, concluding, "in every single case that we were able to research fully, we found a convincing connection between a mystery package and an earlier order."[23]