Release No.: 126-13

Contact:

Nadine Wilkins (202) 720-8998

nadine.wilkins@ams.usda.gov

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2013 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announced that Pennington Seed Inc., in Madison, Ga., has paid $19,500 to settle alleged violations of the Federal Seed Act.

This settlement resolves a case, which involved 17 shipments of grass seed mixtures to Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, and Virginia. Portions of the shipments to Indiana, Texas, and Virginia were subsequently shipped to Kentucky, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania, where the seed was officially sampled. One shipment of tall fescue seeds was shipped to Georgia. The alleged violations were:

-false labeling of pure seed, other crop seed, and germination percentages, date of test, variety name, and kind name;

-failure to label the presence of noxious-weed seeds (undesirable grass seeds); and

-failure to keep or supply complete records of the seed.

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