Organic fertilizer fraud nets 364-day prison term, plus fine

11/08/2012 02:55:00 PM
Coral Beach

The California Department of Food and Agriculture officials told the judge in their comments that Townsley’s scheme resulted in additional regulations in the state that annually cost the organic industry $400,000 in increased fees and testing.

In its request for a 46-month sentence, the U.S. Attorney’s office said that Townsley not only intentionally perpetrated the fraud, but that he continued to do so while ducking investigators. He further showed a lack of remorse by “backing away from what he admitted in the plea agreement” when he was interviewed by the federal probation officer, according to court documents.

“At any time, Townsley could have made the right choice and stopped selling Biolizer XN, but it is clear that he was motivated by one thing — greed,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in its sentence recommendation.

The judge noted in an order related to the calculation of losses of victims in the case that “(the) defendant spends much of his briefing running away from his plea and the facts and evidence as presented in this case.”

Townsley submitted numerous letters from friends and family, including his elderly and ailing parents, which described him as law-abiding and remorseful. Townsley also said state and federal governments were partially to blame because they failed to effectively enforce organic certification regulations.

Comments (12) Leave a comment 

What are the SPECIFIC ingredients that were changed? What is the REAL difference between what he claimed to use and what he actually used?

A year, are you kidding me, this person knew what he was doing from 2000 to 2006 and recieved over 6.5 million for doing it. Sign me up l'll do two years standing on my head, if l knew l would have 6 million reasons, when l got out. What about the public compensation, the illnesses he may have caused, the reputation of other growers world wide and their certifications, not to mention all the years spent on getting certified, the sentence dosn't fit the crime, so how can we expect, other people to be honest in their daily operations. The real crime, is how the justice system is letting the criminal, dictate the out come for the rest of the us.

This is the reason I get angry with organic produce. It is a fine idea and practice, but realize the things that are touted to be so much healthier many times are not. I notice when conventional ag has any gatherings such as Farm Technology Days, organic is always included as a part of agriculture. But when organic has anything, they make it known how "bad" conventional is, (their opinion). It would be much better to work together, and not bad mouth one or the other.

I feel bad for the organic fertilizer companies who were playing by the rules, and had to compete with
somebody who could pull out data showing how much more nitrogen he had in his solutions. Like steroids in
baseball, you have to nip it in the bud before the only way to compete is to cheat.

I feel the real culprits are the organic industry itself. Someone please tell me if a cell which has a nitrogen atom absorbed through it's cell wall, cares if that atom comes from commercial fertilizer, organic fertilizer, manure or a dead fish. Chemicals in their basic form do not differ because they came from different sources. I think this part of the organic movement is totally bogus.

George- You are totally missing the boat. Some people eat organic because they feel it is healthier. Others eat organic because they feel the process is more benign and/or sustainable. Converting fossil fuels into nitrogen is not the same as composting fish byproducts with kelp.

Most Organic farmers that I know don't act that way, they're too busy working their butts off to care.

organic isn't about that N atom, it's about how that N atom gets to the plant

you're confusing conventional with organic ag

It's the runoff from the application of these fertilizers that the problem, not with the plants themselves.

I heard about this dude on the discovery channel! I think he got of too easy. False
advertising organic fertilizer let alone any false advertising should carry more that a one
year sentence to it!