Washington, DC
June 25, 2007
The
U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that a
Madison, Georgia seed company has paid USDA $5,775 to settle
alleged violations of the Federal Seed Act.
The company, Pennington
Seed, Inc., 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 nine shipments of
annual ryegrass seed and tall fescue seed to Georgia and
Virginia.
The alleged violations, while not the same for all shipments,
were:
- false labeling as to pure seed, other crop seed, rate of
occurrence of noxious-weed seeds, and test date;
- failure to label the presence of noxious-weed seeds; and
- shipping seed containing noxious-weed seeds in excess of
State’s limits.
AMS administers the act with the help of state seed officials.
Seed regulatory officials in Georgia and Virginia 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. |
|
