But seeds cast a whole other dimension onto this problem... It is not a problem if they send you a cheap plastic bracelet but seeds can have unforseen consequences
As someone who is a biologist in Australia, oh my god is it a headache to get seeds into Australia. Lots of paperwork involved if we actually want to grow overseas plants, much easier to import extracted RNA or DNA (but way riskier for the research, shipping companies aren't trustworthy in keeping smaller shipments on ice).
The dogs and the x-ray at the airport are not for drugs, they're mostly biosecurity, too.
I can't see something like the OP happening in Australia, it would get destroyed at the border
Fellow Australian here, and I've always viewed our biosecurity as being pretty tight and effective, too.
Apparently however small innocuous packets/letters don't receive quite as much screening, as I've heard of people getting marijuana seeds in the mail just fine.
Considering how one or two seeds can be enough if the purpose is simply to acquire the species it seems like an impossible task to prevent that.
It's far more difficult than drug smuggling which only works in some reasonable quantity - and becomes more like information smuggling in biological form where you only need one copy.
"The precedent-setting agreement classifies a spacecraft as an export. Once launched, satellite components were judged to be “severed from the possibility of trade within the United States” and therefore considered to be exports, according to Customs officials."
Meanwhile New Zealand looks at Australia, pulls out their own biosecurity system and says "That's not a biosecurity system. That's a biosecurity system.
NZ is the only country I know that makes you take your shoes off in the airport... in order to scrub and bleach them (to be fair they were hiking boots, though not obviously filthy). What service!
True, but NZ has also learned it the hard way. There was once a vibrant birdlife in the South Island, especially. There is some early settler who said that the morning birdsong in Queenstown was deafening. Cats, introduced by European settlers, killed off a lot of the native birds, and the ecosystem is only recently hobbling back to normal (have done birdwatching in NZ).
If you are interested in bird conservation in NZ, please visit Karori park in Wellington and contribute.
BTW: some parks in US also have installed brushes to wipe your boots for preventing the transmission of invasive species seeds. I think there are a few in Wisconsin that I remember.
Some preserves in California have trays of disinfectant to step through, specifically for Sudden Oak Death. It’s a pathogen transmitted through dirt, so in the very few places that aren’t affected yet it’s hard to keep out.
It is because of our early history - heavy with hubris - with introduction and escape/release of cane toads, prickly pair, tiger pear, rabbits, foxes, camels, fruit fly, etc ... that Australia is now extremely cautious.
Indeed, the seed page on Aliexpress is one the most peculiar thing I've seen in a while, blue strawberries, giant tomatoes (advertised to be as big as a watermelon) and all sorts of other weird fruits.
I spent 5$ on these a while back with some friends, about 50% never arrived and the other 50% didn't sprout. Could be my bad though.
Just reminded me of someone I knew back in 2015 that ordered some of these strange off color blue strawberries and fruits, most of his Chinese seeds did not germinate, but the few that did were a strange little regular plant that were not thoroughly bred well. I would never try to order seeds outside of your local famous standard seed houses.
Yup like wooden crates packaging actual products but infested with emerald ash bohrer or asian long horned beetle larvae. Only NZ and AU have an effective biisecurity policies.
I have shipped some of my belongings from Scandinavia to California and back, in plywood crates. Shipping company said that if the crates were untreated, customs in both ends would bake them at rather high temp to kill insects (content still inside). Unsure if that is true or just a myth to make people comply
Not really. Apparently folks can order these seeds already? So its happening, notice or no notice. It seems inevitable that seeds of every plant will be in gardens of every conceivable corner of the earth.
Starting in the 1700's with botanists traveling the world to collect and disseminate them. Which gave us modern corn, wheat, flowering plants, grasses, succulents and nearly everything we grow, harvest and appreciate today. May be a little late to start being concerned about this.
It seems inevitable that seeds of every plant will be in gardens of every conceivable corner of the earth.
Not inevitable at all. Try arriving in Australia with a piece of fruit in your hand luggage, or try arriving in New Zealand with mud on your walking boots, and see what happens.
I ordered some seeds off Amazon from what I thought was a local seller for a regional plant.
The seeds arrived months later, well after planting season, from Kazakhstan. The customs declaration called them plastic beads, but they were definitely seeds. I destroyed them, because I couldn't know for sure they really were what they said they were - seems unlikely a niche regional American plant would be available in Kazakhstan.
Would Australia really be able to stop these cases where they lie on the customs form?
I actually arrived in New Zealand with mud under my walking boots once - we had been trecking on Rarotonga, Cook Islands the day before, and I had not read the customs rules for NZ before filling in the paper slip, shortly before getting off the plane (if I remember correctly, it was approximately 10 years ago) - I had to wash the soles in a shallow tub with some sort of squishy pillow in it.
It sounds like you have less than a passing familiarity with the issue. We have a better understanding of the dangers of invasives and a better regulatory framework to control them than we did in the 1700s. We have eradication programs trying to limit or stop the spread of some of the worst species. Most of them are not beneficial crops.
Maybe a little too soon to just give up completely?
