Invasion of the Tomato Seeds Snatchers

ACKKK! MY TOMATO SEEDS HAVE BEEN SNATCHED!

And by the United States government no less. I always knew there was something shady about that Bush character. Iraq, bad foreign policy and crumby environmental stands aside, the real issue here is my tomato seeds. Customs took my tomato seeds.

I ordered some hard to find tomato seeds from The Organic Gardening Catalogue in England a few weeks ago and I was delighted when the supposed seeds arrived today. More seeds, just what I need to keep the winter blues away. I rip open the package to take a looksee at what was inside only to find only two pieces of paper.

I didn’t bother to read the papers at first. Just silly packing slips most likely. My hand groped in the package to no avail. I even shook the package and peered inside hopefully, thinking that the errant seed packs lay nestled in some secret corner. No go. No seeds.

Then I turned my attention back to the paper. Indeed, one was a packaging slip. The other was a mail interception notice from US customs. The bastards!

According to the form, my seeds were seized under USDA regulation CFR 319.37 which aims to:

prohibit or restrict the importation into the United States of certain
plants and plant products to prevent the introduction of plant pests into the
United States

Oh yes, I can see exactly where tomato seeds fall in that definition. We certainly wouldn’t want a rouge tomato growing and becoming invasive in the US and we all know how well tomato seeds transport potentially lethal plant diseases. *roll eyes*

Hmmm… At the risk of being labeled a plant terrorist, I emailed The Organic Catalogue and asked them to resend the seeds in a plain envelope. Perhaps this time my package can slip stealthily past the keen eyes of US customs so that I can further work to subvert all that is good and just in the US. Or, failing that, just have a few more unusual tomato seeds for my garden.