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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 18.4 ms ] thread
miles
TL;DR: Combination of brushing scams and forgotten, delayed seed orders.
tc313
The article actually casts doubt on the idea that it could be both, calling it “improbable.”
miles
Reading the entire piece, or at least the surrounding text, one finds that it is merely a rhetorical device, not some final word.

Here are a few more snippets for those too busy or disinclined to read the whole thing:

"It was now clear to me that at least some of these packets were definitely forgotten orders. ... We couldn’t always come to a definitive conclusion. ... the USDA clearly remained unconvinced by my arguments. ... I certainly don’t rule out there being messier aspects to what happened last summer that remain to be uncovered."

sovok_x
Irrespective if it's a random thing, it still gives valuable insight into possibilities and crowd psychology.
solar-mariner
And yet every case they were able to investigate to conclusion was a forgotten order, and not a single case could be confirmed as brushing.