Washington, DC
May 30, 2008
AMS No. 120-08
The U.S. Department of Agriculture
today announced that a Tangent, Ore., seed company has paid USDA
$1,200 to settle alleged violations of the Federal Seed Act.
The company, Harvest States, settled the case in agreement with
officials from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). The
company neither admitted nor denied the charges.
The case resolved by the settlement involved a shipment of a
blend of tall fescue seed to Georgia, a shipment of Bermudagrass
to Kansas, and a shipment of a grass seed mixture to
Connecticut. The latter two shipments were reshipped to,
respectively, Indiana and Georgia.
The alleged violations, while not the same for all shipments,
were:
- false labeling in regard
to germination; and,
- false labeling in regard
to noxious-weed seed.
AMS administers the act with the
help of state seed officials. Seed regulatory officials in
Georgia and Indiana 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. |
|
