Washington, DC
March 9, 2009
The
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural
Marketing Service (AMS) announced today that Allied Seed, LLC, a
seed company operating out of Nampa, Idaho, has paid $8,450 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 one shipment of
timothy seed and two shipments of orchardgrass seed to Missouri,
and one shipment of red clover seed and four shipments of annual
ryegrass seed to Georgia.
The alleged violations, while not the same for all shipments,
were as follows:
- false labeling as to pure
seed, other crop seed, inert matter, and weed seed;
- false labeling as to the presence of noxious-weed seed;
- false labeling as to percentage of germination and hard
seed; and
- false labeling as to the date of germination test.
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 Georgia and Missouri. The Federal
Seed Act is a truth-in-labeling law designed to protect farmers
and consumers who buy seed. |
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