Washington, DC
April 2, 2009
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural
Marketing Service (AMS) announced today that
Barenbrug USA, a seed
company operating out of Tangent, Ore., has paid $7,475 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 a case which involved shipments of one
forage seed mixture to Louisiana, one lawn seed mixture to
Missouri, and two annual ryegrass shipments to Texas. The
shipment to Missouri was subsequently reshipped to a location in
Pennsylvania and the shipment to Louisiana was subsequently
reshipped to a location in Indiana. The alleged violations,
while not the same for all shipments, were as follows:
- false labeling as to pure
seed, other crop seed, and weed seed;
- false labeling as to presence of noxious-weed seed;
- false labeling as to germination rate;
- failure to conduct germination test prior to interstate
shipment;
- false labeling as to date of test;
- false labeling as to kind and variety names; and
- failure to keep or supply complete records as required.
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, 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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