Organic Fraud

Iowa, Minnesota farmers plead guilty in organic fraud schemes

Two farmers, one in Iowa and another in Minnesota, recently pleaded guilty to selling conventionally grown crops as organic in multimillion-dollar fraud schemes. According to court records, Mark Lynn Haines, 48, of Sigourney, Iowa engaged in a scheme to defraud and obtain money from 2015 to 2018 concerning sales of grain as organic, when in […]

South Dakota man indicted for $71 million organic grain fraud

The second large-scale organic fraud case in the Midwest in under a year has highlighted ongoing concern. Between 2012 and 2018, businessman Kent Duane Anderson deceived food distributors and brokers into believing his non-organic grains and seeds were organic. Fifty-year-old Anderson pocketed $11 million ($25 million profit) and purchased a multi-million dollar Florida home, an […]

Grain growers seek Irish ban on palm and GMO feed products

In addition, the grain could contain pesticides Ireland has banned for years. “Irish supermarketsshould lead the way and plan to clear their shelves of palm kernels, palm oil, GMO soya [byproducts] and GMO maize-related products within a year,” the group said. Irish grain farmers, concerned about the decline of tillage acreage as well as global […]

USDA officials said they were guarding against organic food fraud. Congress decided they need help.

New regulations on blocking fraudulent “organic” food imports into the U.S. went into effect in late December, as part of the 2018 Farm Bill. America imports organic corn, soybeans, and coffee from 100 different countries—but recently many of those shipments have proven not to be organic. Millions of pounds of “organic” corn and soybeans were […]

Revoked Midwest farm allegedly sold 150,000 bushels of fake “organic” corn

State agriculture department says if additional buyers had not been contacted, alleged fraudulent sales would not have been uncovered