The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that a Fort Dodge, Iowa, seed company has paid USDA $875 to settle alleged violations of the Federal Seed Act.

The company, Cenex Land O’Lakes, Inc. Ag Service, settled the case in agreement with officials from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The company neither admitted nor denied the charges.

The case resolved by the settlement involved three shipments of soybean seed made to Maryland, alleged to be in violation of the Federal Seed Act.

The alleged violations, while not the same for all shipments, were:

• false labeling as to varietal purity;
• failure to keep and or supply a complete record of the seed.

AMS administers the act with the help of state seed officials. Seed regulatory officials in Maryland cooperated with AMS in making the investigations. The Federal Seed Act is a truth-in-labeling law designed to protect farmers and consumers who buy seed.