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Illegal to Sell Seeds?




There has been a lot of social media chatter about the sale of seeds in recent days....

https://twitter.com/jamie2181/status/1249516143502450691

As that tweet illustrates, a lot of people believe that either the federal government or a lot of state governments have made the sale of seeds illegal. That is not accurate, though it isn't entirely false. Agriculture is an essential business, and of course farms buy seeds. In a more urban/suburban setting, hardware stores are generally considered essential businesses, and they are allowed to sell seeds too, along with other gardening equipment.

And Amazon will mail you seeds if you like. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=seeds+gardening

So: what is the controversy? Stand alone greenhouses are NOT considered essential businesses in many states. They have been closed down. If that had been your avenue for buying the seeds for your backyard (or balcony) garden, you may well be ticked off.

What especially inspires passions here is the symbolic significance of seeds. Buying seeds implies a sense of futurity, a sense that one is NOT living moment to moment, or day to day, but on an annual agronomic schedule. Putting a seed in the dirt is an act of foresight. And some dissidents are saying "they've banned the sale of seeds" as a way of suggesting that the pro-Leviathan "they" has in fact banned foresight.

I must say I find the argument about greenhouses diverting. It may be a small piece of the overall riddle of the coronavirus and its economic effects, but the symbolism is rivertingly apt.  And from a very practical point of view: April is when greenhouses make their year! To close them down through April leaves only two possibilities: they go under or they are on the dole for the whole of that annual growing cycle I just mentioned, until April 2021 when they can hope to make their money for another year -- IF the "dole" in question has been competently administered and has kept them alive.

The Leviathan isn't really banning foresight, but it isn't using any, either.


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