Washington, DC, USA
September 11, 2009
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) today announced that Barenbrug USA, a seed company operating out of Tangent, Ore., has paid $7,150 to settle alleged violations of the Federal Seed Act. The company settled the case in agreement with AMS officials. The company neither admitted nor denied the charges brought against them.
This settlement resolves cases which involved one shipment each of a lawn seed mixture to New York, Virginia and Texas, one shipment of a tall fescue seed mixture to Kansas, one shipment of tall fescue to Missouri and four shipments of lawn seed mixtures to Illinois. The shipment to New York was subsequently re-shipped to Pennsylvania. The shipment to Kansas was subsequently re-shipped to Missouri. The shipments to Illinois were subsequently re-shipped to Indiana, Pennsylvania and Texas. The alleged violations, while not the same for all shipments, were as follows:
-false labeling as to pure seed and other crop seed;
-false labeling as to the rates of occurrence of noxious-weed seed;
-false labeling as to the date of germination test;
-failure to label as a mixture;
-failure to list components of a mixture in order of predominance; and
-failure to keep or supply complete records of seed.
AMS administers the Federal Seed Act with the assistance of state seed officials. The investigation was completed through the joint efforts of AMS and seed regulatory officials in Indiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Federal Seed Act is a truth-in-labeling law designed to protect farmers and consumers who buy seed.
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