Mystery seeds mailed to U.S. residents from overseas (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service)
| Tracking # |
2010-APHIS-05675-F |
| Multi Request | Mystery seeds mailed to U.S. residents from overseas |
| Submitted | Aug. 5, 2020 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Adrianne Jeffries
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
According to a press release, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) received multiple reports of consumers receiving unsolicited packages of seeds in the mail that appear to be sent from China and other countries. The press release reported that MDARD is working with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to investigate the situation and asked consumers to fill out an online form:
https://www.michigan.gov/mdard/0,4610,7-125-1572_28248_50968-535217--,00.html
I'm seeking copies of the responses submitted through the "Reporting of Receipt of Unsolicited Seeds" form by consumers.
I am a reporter and this request is made for newsgathering.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Adrianne Jeffries
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service
Attached is a correspondence pertaining to your recent (FOIA) request.
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service
Adrianne Jeffries,
Please see the attached regarding your request, reference #2010-APHIS-05675-F.
If you have any questions or other concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
[USDA-Logo]
BRION McCONVILLE | Government Information Specialist
legislative and Public Affairs - FOIA
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
4700 River Rd, Unit 50 (2B-03.4)
Riverdale, MD 20737-1232
* 301-851-4079
This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service
Dear Adrianne Jeffries, I am contacting you in order to provide an update to you on the processing of the above-mentioned Freedom of Information Act request.
As you may know, I am working on our cases as quickly as possible to provide you with a release determination and will continue to keep you updated regarding your case.
Please note that during the pandemic, our offices are closed and we are instead working remotely to the greatest extent possible. To this end and in order to continue to improve delivery to, and communication with, requestors, we will be communicating mostly via e-mail and through the PAL system (https://efoia-pal.usda.gov/). If you do not have a PAL account through USDA (the account that lets requestors submit FOIA requests electronically directly to our system), you may want to setup an account or have a colleague do so. This will also enable us to deliver documents electronically, including larger files that may not be deliverable via e-mail.
If you run into any problems and/or issues with the PAL system, please let me know. Additionally, if you are unable and/or cannot use the PAL system for any reason, please let us know that as well. Thank you for your patience and understanding with this process and if you need assistance or have questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact me directly at brion.m.mcconville@usda.gov or 301-851-4079.
Sincerely,
BRION MCCONVILLE | GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SPECIALIST LEGISLATIVE AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS - FOIA ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE 4700 RIVER RD, UNIT 50 (2B-03.4) RIVERDALE, MD 20737-1232 Ph: 301-851-4079
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service
Dear Adrianne Jeffries,
I am contacting you in order to provide an update to you on the processing of the above-mentioned Freedom of Information Act request.
As you may know, I am working on our cases as quickly as possible to provide you with a release determination and will continue to keep you updated regarding your case.
Please note that during the pandemic, our offices are closed and we are instead working remotely to the greatest extent possible. To this end and in order to continue to improve delivery to, and communication with, requestors, we will be communicating mostly via e-mail and through the PAL system (https://efoia-pal.usda.gov/). If you do not have a PAL account through USDA (the account that lets requestors submit FOIA requests electronically directly to our system), you may want to setup an account or have a colleague do so. This will also enable us to deliver documents electronically, including larger files that may not be deliverable via e-mail.
If you run into any problems and/or issues with the PAL system, please let me know. Additionally, if you are unable and/or cannot use the PAL system for any reason, please let us know that as well. Thank you for your patience and understanding with this process and if you need assistance or have questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact me directly at brion.m.mcconville@usda.gov or 301-851-4079.
Sincerely,
BRION MCCONVILLE | GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SPECIALIST LEGISLATIVE AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS - FOIA ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE 4700 RIVER RD, UNIT 50 (2B-03.4) RIVERDALE, MD 20737-1232 Ph: 301-851-4079
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service
Adrianne Jeffries,
We are attempting to contact you to get some clarification on your request in order to complete the search for records.
We would like to discuss this with you in order to complete your request. Please reach out to us as soon as may be possible, no later than April 13, so that we can attempt to complete this process. Please note that we do not have a good contact number for you and this would greatly help in our efforts with contacting you.
As always, if you have any questions or other concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
[cid:image001.png@01D72B8E.8AC8E110]
This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
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From: Adrianne Jeffries
Hi Brion,
Thanks for the update. I have a login for the PAL system. It's under adrianne / adrianne@themarkup.org. Happy to discuss but I'm on deadline today. Can I give you a call tomorrow?
Adrianne
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service
Adrianne Jeffries,
I’m pleased to note that we were able to complete the search and the analysis on the documents found to be responsive to your request (reference #2020-APHIS-06292-F). Please see the attached and as always, if you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.
[cid:image003.png@01D73111.457C0640]
This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
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image003
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service
Adrianne Jeffries,
Although we closed out your other related requests (20-05675 & 20-06292), we still need to clarify this request (reference #2021-APHIS-00980-F) in order to complete the search process and get you the records you are seeking.
If you could please let me know when you might be available for this, it would be greatly appreciated.
[cid:image003.png@01D73176.862F55B0]
This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
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image003
From: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service
Adrianne Jeffries,
I'm contacting you again in regards to your request (reference #2021-APHIS-00980-F) because although we closed out your other related requests (20-05675 & 20-06292), we still need to clarify this request in order to complete the search process and get you the records you are seeking.
If you could please let me know when you might be available for this to discuss how we might better clarify your request, it would be greatly appreciated.
[cid:image001.png@01D73FF2.2EABB740]
This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.
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image001
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