Anthrax, Irradiation and your Seed and Plant Orders
Note: THERE IS MORE NEWS ABOUT ANTHRAX AND MAIL IRRADIATION - SOME OF IT HOPEFUL. I HAVE PUT IT IN A SEPARATE ARTICLE AS THISONE IS GETTING OVERLONG. yOU CAN READ THELATEST DEVELOPMENTS AT:http://suite101.com/article.cfm/75/86734
The talk among garden writers and those in the plant industry lately is filled with rumors and speculation about the effects that irradiating packages coming through the US mails will have on our plants and seeds. Before anyone panics, I thought I should try to lay things out for you as they are. And check back - this story may grow as more information becomes available.
Since many seed and plant companies use the US Mail to send out their orders the concern is natural.
Irradiation has been used to create genetic mutations - so at one level the possible effect would be to alter any seeds or plants into something very different from what they started out to be.
There is another even more dire effect. Irradiation could kill the seeds.
The consequences for garden industry mail order businesses could be pretty dire. Things were bad enough when Foster & Gallagher went bankrupt, dragging many of their suppliers along with them. And now suddenly the industry has to worry about being able to ship their products at all.
Let's take a deep breath, calm down and look at things - at least as they stand today.
Fact one:
No one is scanning packages right now - Thursday, November 11, 2001. The Post Office has purchased the equipment, but it not arrived, and so hasn't been installed.
That means we may want to place some plant orders now, if we live in areas where we can still plant and if the companies we want to order from are still shipping. Seeds too - they can be saved until proper planting time.
Fact two:
Your local post office will probably not have the equipment at all unless you live in Washington, D.C. or New York.
However - and here is the first unknown - as of yet we have no information about whether all mail will be funneled through those few stations equipped with irradiation equipment, of whether the routing of mail will proceed as usual. Much of our mail may remain unaffected. Conversely all of our mail may be rerouted so that it can be irradiated.
That, of course, is as much a bane as a boon. I would rather have my mail irradiated than to have anthrax arriving in my mailbox. But as a gardener, I have to look at how this will affect my plant and seed orders. As a garden writer I worry about how this will affect the garden industry as a whole.
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