Mail Order Plants: Government Intrusion?
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HarleyLady
Location: Willamette Valley
Posted: Jul-15-2007 at 10:29am
I am really upset. After placing an order with Park Wholesale earlier this year during their 70% off sale, I recently received a letter from them saying that I have been selected for a potential inspection by the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Has anyone heard of this before or had it happen to them? HM and I are very private people and we don't want uninvited guests poking around our property. Do I have the right to refuse this inspection if I am contacted? I am outraged that Park Seed doesn't disclose this information at the time of placing an order. I will not order from them again for this reason. I know they cannot ship certain plants to certain states and that is disclosed, but not the potential for an inspection. I understand the need to protect the state's agriculture, but I would prefer to do so by just not ordering plants from out of state if there is a potential for pests or disease.
Here is the text of the letter:
Dear Park Seed Customer:
Thank you for your recent order. I hope that your plants arrived safel and are doing well in your garden.
As you may be aware, whenever plants are shipped around the country, the possibility exists that pests accompany them. Here at Park Seed we do everything we can to prvent the transportation of any unwelcome pests, but not every plantsman is as vigilant as we, and the Oregon Department of AGriculture has established protective quarantines against certain pests (such as the Japanese Beetle) that might cause economic loss to the state. To comply with these quarantines, Park Seed provides a list of plants shipped into the state of Oregon each month, and periodically the Oregon Department of Agriculture may visit customers to inspect their plants. You have been selected for a potential inspection.
The inspection requires no action on your part. You do not need to contact the Department of Agriculture or treat your plants any differently from others in your garden. Plant and care for them as you normally would. If a visit is required, the Department of Agriculture will contact you.
On behalf of the Oregon Department of Agriculture and all of us at Park Seed, I would like to thank you in advance for cooperating with this program, which helps keep Oregon agriculture healthy and prosperous. If you have questions or would like further information, please call the Oregon Department of Agriculture at (503) 986-4644. Best wishes for a bountiful garden !
Sincerely yours,
Rainforest
Location: Washington, Olympic Peninsula
Posted: Jul-15-2007 at 11:47am
Hmm, sounds like two sides of the coin.
The state could be monitoring out of state nurseries for compliance; which is a good thing. Having just watched a documentary on how poorly the FDA monitors the food supply; I would consider this a helpful thing.
On the other hand, it might be consirered an intrusion of your privacy. I would certainly contact the DOA, and find out what procedures they use. I certainly wouldn't want some pencil-neck thomping thru my garden and possibly yanking out my plants.
DebbieTT
Location: Washington, Kitsap Peninsula
Posted: Jul-15-2007 at 12:16pm
Are you sure it wasn't the state that selected you? I guess what I would do is call the state and ask them what all they need. You could cancel the order too, if you don't want them snooping on your property.
JeanneK
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Jul-15-2007 at 2:06pm
Sounds like you already received your seeds from Park Seed and you can't cancel the order, hmmm?
I feel for you, HL, I wouldn't want an inspection on my property either, even though I am not growing anything illegal and as far as I know, I have no unusual bugs either. Yes, Park Seed should definitely place the potential for inspections as a warning in their catalog/website.
I can understand that the State needs to monitor exotic pests and weeds. Seems like it would be more important to monitor live plants and not seeds.
Jeanne
Lisa A
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Jul-15-2007 at 5:29pm
Oh, wow, how unfortunate and uncomfortable, HL. I don't blame you for being upset. I would be, too. Park Seed probably doesn't make this public knowledge because they know they could lose sales (not that that excuses them from informing customers).
The ODA inspection seems odd timing to me, like closing the barn door after the horse has gotten out. I certainly would want ODA making sure we don't get pests such as Japanese beetle (I hear horror stories from a friend in DC area) but if a pest did accidentally arrive, it seems so plausible that it would be on its merry way and no longer be in your garden. I wonder what they hope to learn by on-site inspections like this.
HarleyLady
Location: Willamette Valley
Posted: Jul-15-2007 at 5:36pm
My order was for plants from Park Wholesale website, apparently a division of Park Seed. After I posted here, I went to check my records as I couldn't recall which plants I had ordered from them and which from other catalogs. I discovered that I had placed an order then had cancelled it the following day, apparently in a rare display of self control and/or the desire to save some of my plant budget for local nurseries.
So, I suppose I can notify Oregon DOA (hmmmm...don't know if I like that acronym very much) that I have received no plants from Park and therefore no inspection will be necessary. But, I think I will also write a letter to Park and notify them of my displeasure with their failure to tell customers of possible inspections in advance.
trav
Location: Washington, Western
Posted: Jul-15-2007 at 5:49pm
Well, if Oregon is concerned about controlling pests that are endemic elsewhere, I'm not sure how else they can do it - other than completely banning out-of-state businesses like Park from shipping to Oregon, and setting up checkpoints at every road entry into the state. It also seems like it's the state, not necessarily Park, that should bear the onus of notifying its citizens of this policy. Turn the idea around - if you were selling, say, backpacks mail order, and every state required that YOU track THEIR myriad laws regarding commerce and notify all customers in each state prior to them making any purchase, would you feel that was fair?
I understand the resentment over government intrusion, and I'd probably feel the same way if it were me at the receiving end - but I'm not sure there's a good alternative, and I do want government doing exactly this sort of thing.
Travis
bakingbarb
Location: Washington, Western
Posted: Jul-15-2007 at 9:42pm
Trav you mentioning checkpoints reminds me of what as a sore point with my family when I was young. There were checkpoints between Ca and Or regarding transporting fruit. It was a bone of contention with my family. We were always buying fresh fruit and if doing so while crossing the border, it would be given up at the border to be burned.
Goverenment has found an odd way to check out the pest issue. Seems like something I wouldn't be comfortable with.
Good luck with this
~BakingBarb
HarleyLady
Location: Willamette Valley
Posted: Jul-15-2007 at 10:13pm
Trav, I don't disagree with you on the need to have some protections, but I have to agree with Lisa that it's kind of like locking the barn door after the horse has gotten out. Perhaps if they are going to select certain shipments for inspection, they could notify the recipient at the time the shipment is made, asking that you call them upon receipt so they can make an appointment to be present and inspect the order when it is opened. This makes more sense than inspecting someone's private property/garden months after an order was shipped (this timeframe based on the assumption that I hadn't cancelled my order). Also, with this procedure, if they were to find something, they would know that it came from Park and not from one of the numerous other sources from which I've purchased plants.
silver_ creek
Location: Washington, Western Cascade Foothills
Posted: Jul-16-2007 at 6:28am
As someone who works at a nursery that ships all over the country, I have had the opportunity to work with various state regulations. Oregon has some very strict regulations (and they don't really make rational sense,even to the inspectors, but I won't go into that here). If I were you, I would contact ODA and find out what triggered the inspection letter. It may be in response to a new threat that happens to include a host plant that is something you ordered from Park Seed.
Most nurseries that ship out of state undergo annual inspections and testing. That limits much of the interstate shipping hassels. But if a new pest appears "out of nowhere" often the agricultural inspection agencies have to scramble to contain it. For the most part, talking to the agency will give you good results.
Terry M.
tommyb
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: Jul-16-2007 at 7:15am
Sorry you feel intruded upon, HL. And I appreciate the sentiments already expressed regarding "Big Sister" and her invasive attitudes.
But I must be true to myself and ask, "At what level of purchases does a consumer become a commercial enterprise?" Do you know your UPS lady by name? I know mine carries chocolate.
Perhaps nursery-type activities are like collecting cars, after you have five you need a license?
Or just maybe Mr. Seedy has contacts within the DOA and has chosen to exercise his influence.
Just wonderings from the weed patch...
Tom
FloraGardener
Location: Washington, Long Beach Peninsula
Posted: Jul-16-2007 at 10:08am
HL, I remember now your telling me you had cancelled a Park Seed wholesale order...with unusual restraint. I think it was before we went to the HPSO study weekend and you did not want to add to your pot ghetto at that time! Anyway, I am totally with you about not wanting the plant inspectors in my garden. What if, for example, I happened to be growing Papaver somniferum (which I am not, as I have too much shade, but many, many of us do despite its questionable legality...It was rampant in the gardens we toured in Portland)? Besides, my own garden tends to be a mess and sometimes I don't want anyone, even an inspector, to see it. AND what about people who work all the time? At cerain times of the year (up until recently when I seem to have started to go to garden tours during possible work time!) , I am just never home during the day. All in all, I think Park should give a warning to Oregon customers. I remember when I used to order from Wayside and White Flower Farm, there were lots of plants that said "Cannot be shipped to Washington or Oregon"...sometimes just to Washington.
Lisa A
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posted: Jul-16-2007 at 11:02am
Thanks, Terry, for explaining what might trigger an on-side inspection. That is good information to have.
proteoidesgirl
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: Jul-17-2007 at 1:19pm
Hi HL,
Seems a bit odd, I would contact/forward the notice to your states Attorney General's office to see if this is ligit.
Hollymallismollis
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton