The NOP often enters into settlement agreements with operations, certified and uncertified, and accredited certifiers concerning noncompliance with the USDA organic regulations. Typically, these settlements are executed as alternatives to administrative proceedings that may result in suspension or revocation of certification or accreditation, as well as civil penalties for the knowing sale of products in violation of the USDA organic regulations. Settlement always requires operations to comply with USDA organic regulations and, sometimes, includes specific compliance requirements and/or reduced civil penalties.
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04/24/2025: Nelson Gingerich, dba Elm Farm – Bloomfield, Iowa
Nelson Gingerich, dba Elm Farm (Gingerich) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. Gingerich agrees to not use any prohibited substances in its livestock operation, including inputs used on livestock, bedding, walls, and perches; to take measures to not expose livestock to inputs that need to be sprayed in the barn; to not use inputs until they are reviewed and approved by its certifier; and to maintain input use records. Gingerich agrees to inform its certifier within five days if it uses any unapproved or conventional input and to surrender the organic certification of the affected livestock; to not store inputs containing prohibited substances in the barn housing organic livestock; and to submit a plan for approval to its certifier for installing barriers to cover treated wood surfaces that organic livestock may come into contact with in the livestock barn. Within six months Gingerich agrees to install barriers to cover all treated wood and within one-year Gingerich agrees it is subject to an unannounced inspection.
04/22/2025: Bay State Milling Company – Mooresville, North Carolina
Bay State Milling Company (BSMC) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. BSMC agrees to comply with the organic regulations regarding non-retail labeling and with its previously submitted policies on bulk conveyance and non-retail labeling. BSMC also agrees to prevent commingling of organic and non-organic product and to take measures to ensure its policies remain in compliance.
04/17/2025: La Realidad Fabosch SA de CV and Campo Pablo Borquez – Obregon, Sonora, Mexico
La Realidad Fabosch SA de CV and Campo Pablo Borquez, jointly identified as LRF-CPB, withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. LRF-CPB agrees to pay overdue certification fees and to pay all future certification fees on time.
04/10/2025: Alpha Commodities SARL – Lome, Togo
Alpha Commodities SARL (Alpha) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. Alpha agrees to provide documentation to its new certifier to resolve previously cited noncompliances and to comply with policies and procedures set forth in its Organic System Plan, including those related to the monitoring of products and removal of noncompliant products from organic processes. Alpha agrees to maintain transaction records, supplier organic certificates, proof of an accounting and registration system for purchases and receipt of soybeans, and to work to ensure its producer members maintain sales records. Alpha also agrees to prevent commingling and contamination of organic and conventional product and to not use prohibited substances or inputs containing prohibited substances.
04/02/2025: Jiangmen Shunran Local Product Co. Ltd. and Dali Wufeng Organic Farm – Kinhui District, Guangdong, China
Jiangmen Shunran Local Product Co. Ltd. and Dali Wufeng Organic Farm, jointly referred to as Jiangmen-Dali, withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification.
03/31/2025: Natural Food Source, Inc. – Whitehall, Pennsylvania
Natural Food Source, Inc. (NFS) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and to keep detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification, including a fraud prevention plan and organic certificates for all product they handle. NFS agrees to maintain and submit records that fully disclose all activities and transactions; to not represent nonorganic product as organic; and to only use labels approved by its certifier. NFS also agrees to resolve any outstanding noncompliances and agrees to an unannounced inspection within one year.
03/26/2025: Spiritual Springs Farm – Heath, Ohio
Spiritual Springs Farm (Spiritual) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. Spiritual also agrees to pay certification-related fees on-time.
03/19/2025: United Fruit and Produce Co. – St. Louis, Missouri
United Fruit and Produce Co. (United) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to stop selling product as organic until its organic certification is reinstated by NOP and to pay its total civil penalty within 30 days. If/when reinstated, United agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification; to inform its certifier of operational or product changes with an updated organic system plan; and to maintain organic certificates of all products it handles.
03/14/2025: Mapeks USA LLC, dba Mac Global LLC – Allentown, Pennsylvania
Mapeks USA LLC, dba Mac Global LLC (Mapeks USA) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and documentation required to maintain organic certification, including a fraud prevention plan and organic certificates for all product they handle. Mapeks USA agrees to maintain and submit records that fully disclose all activities and transactions; to not represent nonorganic product as organic; to only use labels approved by its certifier; to take measures to prevent commingling of organic and nonorganic products; and to divert product identified in the adverse action notice to the conventional market. Mapeks USA also agrees to submit evidence of the disposition of the aforementioned product to its certifier, to resolve any outstanding noncompliances, and agrees to an unannounced inspection within one year.
03/12/2025: Benjamin B. Allgyer – Platteville, Wisconsin
Benjamin B. Allgyer (Allgyer) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification and fully disclose all activities and transactions. Allgyer agrees to feed only organic feed to its organic livestock and to maintain organic feed purchase documentation, including receipts and organic status information. Allgyer also agrees to not use any prohibited substances and understands that specific organic livestock identified in the adverse action are still organic.
03/11/2025: Mapeks Gida ve Sanayi Mamulleri Ihracat ve Tic AS – Izmir, Turkey
Mapeks Gida ve Sanayi Mamulleri Ihracat ve Tic AS (Mapeks Gida) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and documentation required to maintain organic certification, including a fraud prevention plan and organic certificates for all product they handle. Mapeks Gida agrees to maintain and submit records that fully disclose all activities and transactions; to not represent nonorganic product as organic; to only use labels approved by its certifier; and to take measures to prevent commingling of organic and nonorganic products. Mapeks Gida also agrees to an unannounced inspection within one year and to resolve any outstanding noncompliances.
03/04/2025: IMOcert Latinoamerica Ltd – Cochabamba, Bolivia
IMOcert Latinoamerica Ltd (IMOC) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees not to accept any new applicants for USDA organic certification for 4 months. IMOC agrees to provide NOP with a monthly summary for applications already in process prior to the execution of the settlement agreement; to provide staff training; to submit amended midterm corrective actions and corrective actions in response to other noncompliances identified by NOP; to conduct two internal audits of its NOP certification activities; and to provide NOP with how IMOC plans to ensure NOP requests are submitted in a timely manner and in English and how IMOC plans to execute the terms of the Settlement Agreement.
02/25/2025: Keegan Commodities – Irvine, California
Keegan Commodities (Keegan) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. Keegan agrees to not represent, market, label or sell any nonorganic product as organic, including any remaining soybean meal or corn from the shipments in question; to provide a plan to its certifier for diverting product found to be nonorganic to the conventional market; to maintain and implement fraud prevention practices related to the procurement of organic livestock feed commodities; and to keep sufficient records to allow for successful traceability. Keegan also agrees NOP has not determined it engaged in any falsification of documentation regarding the shipment in question.
02/19/2025: Natural Earth Products, Inc. – Brooklyn, New York
Natural Earth Products, Inc. (Natural) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. Natural agrees to surrender its organic certification and that if it wishes to become certified organic again, it will need to apply and to correct all previous noncompliances. Natural also agrees if it sells product as organic prior to becoming certified, it may be subject to civil penalties.
02/18/2025: Nature’s Distribution Inc. – Pleasant Grove, Utah
Nature’s Distribution Inc. (Nature’s) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. Nature’s agrees it surrenders its certification with one certifier and is remaining certified by another; agrees to pay its outstanding certification balance within 30 days; and agrees that even if it submits an application to a new certifier, it still needs to comply with requests from its current certifier.
02/11/2025: Double J Meat Packing Inc. – Pierce, Colorado
Double J Meat Packing Inc. (Double) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. Double agrees to submit its Organic System Plan (OSP) annually with accurate information on the flow of livestock and monitoring procedures; to maintain current supplier organic certificates and records that fully disclose all activities and transactions in sufficient detail to be readily understood and audited, including tracking all animals from receipt to shipping to ensure it only accepts organic livestock for organic slaughter. Double agrees to make sure livestock received match shipping and slaughter records; to prevent commingling and contamination of organic and conventional livestock and products; to not use parasiticides on any organic livestock and to keep appropriate documentation for livestock held overnight. Double also agrees to provide training to staff and its certifier with an updated OSP that includes details on livestock practices and recordkeeping.
02/10/2025: Clean Green Growers – Sellersville, Pennsylvania
Clean Green Growers (Clean) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. Clean also agrees to pay overdue outstanding fees and to pay fees on-time.
02/06/2025: Nicholas Meat LLC – Loganton, Pennsylvania
Nicholas Meat LLC (Nicholas) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees that its status will be identified as suspended in the NOP Organic Integrity Database. Nicholas also agrees to not represent, label, or sell any product as organic while its certification is suspended.
01/27/2025: Joshua Seal, dba Seal Farm - Angie, Louisiana
Joshua Seal, dba Seal Farm (Seal) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and documentation required to maintain organic certification, including its 2025 renewal materials by its anniversary date.
01/22/2025: KSU Nira Satria - Banyumas, Indonesia
KSU Nira Satria (KSU) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to a two-year suspension of its organic certification. While suspended, KSU agrees to not represent, label, sell, or handle any product as organic. If/when KSU is reinstated, KSU agrees to not use any prohibited substances or inputs containing prohibited substances, to prevent the contamination of organic product, and to having its certifier conduct sampling of crops and finished products to test for prohibited substances.
01/10/2025: Wenshan Miaoxiang Notoginseng Industrial Co. Ltd. - Wenshan City, Yunnan Province, China
Wenshan Miaoxiang Notoginseng Industrial Co. Ltd. (WMNI) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and if/when WMNI is certified again it agrees to respond to all certifier requests for information and documentation required to maintain organic certification. WMNI agrees to not use any prohibited substances; to not use inputs until they are reviewed and approved by its certifier; to take measures to separate the handling/processing/packaging of organic and conventional products and to clean organic handling equipment prior to use; to maintain input application records, equipment cleaning records, operation records, and records of all activities related to seed cultivation and export packaging; and to submit all labels to its certifier for review and approval prior to use. WMNI also agrees it is subject to an unannounced inspection, including sampling to test for prohibited substances within 18 months of certification.
01/08/2025: Spartan Enterprises Inc. dba Watershed Wellness Center – Lansing, Michigan
Spartan Enterprises Inc. dba Watershed Wellness Center agrees to pay a civil penalty of $646.00 and will not represent itself as a USDA certified organic operation unless and until it becomes certified organic, and will not sell, label, or represent products as USDA certified organic or use the USDA organic seal without organic certification.
1/6/2025- Pine Circle Holsteins, Inc. – Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Pine Circle Holsteins, Inc. (Pine) withdraws its appeal, waives further appeal rights in this matter and agrees to provide on-time responses to all certifier requests for information and detailed documentation required to maintain organic certification. Pine agrees to allow inspectors to have full access to the operation during annual and unannounced inspections, including off-site locations and storage, and agrees that a Pine representative will need to be present. Pine also agrees to maintain sufficient records to substantiate the organic integrity of the livestock, including animal identification and purchase records, and to submit a biosecurity plan to their certifier specific to the Pine operation.