Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer
I ran into a scam like this when we were first starting out. I drove some of our pasture raised hogs to a slaughterhouse in Vermont for USDA processing. There was no inspector there and when I asked the owner of the slaughterhouse explained to me that the USDA seal of approval was contingent on them being a USDA facility, not on actually have someone from the USDA “inspect” the animals and carcasses.
Kind of negates the whole “inspection” part of the seal, but whatever. Our animals were raised outdoors on pasture and as a result they looked like it. While I was unloading them, I noticed a corral filled with bright white, docked hogs. These were clearly CAFO pigs that had never seen the light of day or the outdoors but they were consigned to Whole Foods as “pasture raised”, having been lot purchased from a big producer.
If you don’t see where your food comes from and trust the practices of the farmer who raised them, the odds of you getting commercially produced CAFO animals fed GMO/pesticide/herbicide grains is probably 99%.
Government performance at the micro level, such as USDA inspectors, are every bit as lazy, stupid, and corrupt as they are at the top. You can trust the USDA label the same way you can trust the CDC on masks or the Dominion voting machines to accurately count your vote.
Find a local farmer. Get to know them, and then patronize them so they can survive against the big guys who are- absent any other proof- opportunistic thieves and liars selling you chemically poisoned meats for premium prices. Life is meant to be lived personally. You are not a cog in a machine dependent on systems far too big to be accountable, you are a human being responsible for what you eat, how you behave, who you know. A “Certified Organic” label means no more than a “USDA Inspected” label means- nothing.
Missouri Man Sentenced For Role In Largest “Organic Food” Fraud In American History
A north Missouri businessman who was involved in the largest organic fraud scheme in American history has been sentenced to probation and fined. According to KTTN, federal prosecutors in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, sentenced Steven Whiteside of Chilicothe to three years probation and a fine of 45-thousand dollars.
Two other Northwest Missouri men were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in the 142-million dollar grain fraud scheme, which federal prosecutors describe as the “Field of Schemes.”
Steven Whiteside of Chillicothe pleaded guilty in December to signing a document that allowed Randy Constant to sell conventionally raised grain as certified organic and receive a higher premium.
Federal prosecutors say Whiteside received $177-thousand for grain that Constant resold to animal feed producers. They had asked for a one-year term in prison for Whiteside. His defense attorney argued he received a lesser sentence for having a clean record and having family obligations.
Constant, also of Chillicothe, killed himself in 2019, three days after being sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for wire fraud. Four other farmers, one from Missouri and three from Nebraska, received prison sentences for their role in the long-running scheme.
Back in December, the DOJ said that Constant admitted the fraudulent scheme involved at least $142,433,475 in grain sales, and the vast majority of those sales were fraudulent. From 2010 to 2017, Constant misled customers into thinking they were buying certified organic grain when the grain he was selling was not organic. Constant admitted falsely telling customers the grain he sold was grown on his certified organic fields in Nebraska and Missouri when the grain was not organic either because he purchased the grain from other growers, the certified organic fields were sprayed with unauthorized chemicals, or organic grain was mixed with non-organic grain. As part of the plea, Constant also agreed to forfeit $128,190,128 in proceeds from the fraudulent scheme.
Constant’s grain was mostly used as animal feed, primarily for chickens and cattle. That livestock was then sold as organic meat or products from the livestock were sold as organic products. Because of Constant’s fraud, most of the livestock that was fed his grain was not organic, causing millions of consumers to purchase what they thought was organic meat for a premium price across the country.
It is unclear how much of the billions in exorbitantly expensive “organic” food sold every year by the likes of Whole Foods and other overpriced outlets, is just plain, ordinary, off-the-shelf “inorganic” produce with a “ceritifed” sticker slapped on it to part the gullible with their money.
Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer I ran into a scam like this when we were first starting out. I drove some of our pasture raised hogs to a slaughterhouse in Vermont for USDA processing. There was no inspector there and when I asked the owner of the slaughterhouse explained to me that the USDA seal of … Continue reading “Know Your Farmer”
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