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Nebraska Farmers Plead Guilty to Falsifying Organic Products
USAgNet - 10/15/2018

Three Nebraska farmers will plead guilty to knowingly marketing non-organic corn and soybeans as certified organic as part of a lengthy, multi-million-dollar fraud scheme, federal prosecutors revealed Thursday. The Des Moines Register reports that Tom Brennan, his son James Brennan and family friend Michael Potter have each agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud. Their plea hearings are scheduled for Friday in federal court in Cedar Rapids

Prosecutors allege the three conspired with the owner of a large Iowa-based company to dupe customers nationwide who thought they were buying grains that had been grown using environmentally sustainable practices.

All three operated an organic farm in Overton, Nebraska, that was certified through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program, which requires crops to be grown without the use of fertilizers, sewage sludge and other substances. They also farmed other fields that weren't certified.

From 2010 through 2017, the trio sold non-organic grain directly to customers and to an Ossian, Iowa-based company, which is identified in court papers only as "J.S." and as being owned by an unidentified co-conspirator. They knew the grain was mostly non-organic because it came from non-certified fields or from certified fields where they applied pesticides and nitrogen in violation of USDA standards, prosecutors contend in court documents. Any organic grain was mixed with non-organic grain, rendering all of it non-organic.

Court documents indicate that the Brennans and Potter are cooperating, signaling that additional charges may be forthcoming against the owner of "J.S." Prosecutors said in court documents that the certification for the Nebraska farm was owned by "J.S." and would have been revoked had its third-party certifier known of the chemicals that were used, reprots the Des Moines Register.

Violations are typically handled through USDA enforcement action that can bring fines, revocations and bans, and federal criminal charges are rare, said the group's director, Mark Kastel.

Victims of organic fraud include farmers who buy grain to feed their animals so they can market their meat and milk under the organic label and the consumers who pay a premium for those products, Kastel said. Fraud in U.S. grown crops is believed to be a much smaller problem than those imported from abroad from countries like Turkey, he said.


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