Washington, DC, USA
November 20, 2012

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announced that Turner Seed Inc., Lavergne, Tenn., has paid $2,800 to settle alleged violations of the Federal Seed Act.

This settlement resolves six cases, which involved two shipments of wheat seed, two shipments of oat seed, one shipment of orchardgrass seed, and one shipment of a striate lespedeza and Korean lespedeza seed mixture to Kentucky. The alleged violations, while not the same for all shipments, were:

• false labeling of pure seed and germination percentages;
• mislabeling of noxious-weed seeds rate of occurrence; and
• failure to label as a mixture.

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 Kentucky. The Federal Seed Act is a truth-in-labeling law designed to protect farmers and consumers who buy seed.

Website: http://www.ams.usda.gov

Published: November 20, 2012