3 Nebraska farmers to plead guilty in $10.9 million organic grain fraud scheme

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald-AP

IOWA CITY — 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.

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, Iowa.

Prosecutors allege that 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.

FULL story at link below.

Read more: https://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/nebraska-farmers-to-plead-guilty-in-million-organic-grain-fraud/article_f51fd8eb-9ac7-543f-ac9a-ae0b9582ad74.html

[benld74]

1. Large scale organic - Figures

[NJCher]

2. who wants their crappy wheat anyway

If you read Wheat Belly and some of the other books (by physicians) about how grains have been hybridized to the nth degree, you learn that you don't want any of them. Wheat has changed from being a tall, standing "wave of grain" to some short version that makes them a lot of money per acre. The books explain it all. This form of wheat is why so many have gluten sensibilities. What they've done to wheat is nothing short of a national nutritional disgrace, right on par with sugar and tobacco.

The solution is order einkorn wheat and do your own baking. Search "einkorn Jovial" and you will find some sources. The Jovial person has written a cookbook which I have as an ebook and also have checked out from the local public library.

Another solution is to use alternative flours, like almond. I bake with it and will tell you that anything baked with almond flour is far better than with wheat.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. And these farmers aren't getting enough money as it is? Ripoff artists is all they are, along w/...

rump and his cronies. Phony and full of crap.

[nitpicker]

4. From the DoJ PR

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndia/pr/three-nebraska-farmers-plead-guilty-fraud-involving-sales-grain-fraudulently-marketed

(snip)
At their respective plea hearings, each man admitted to growing grain between 2010 and 2017 that was not organic. Each further admitted that they knew the grain was being marketed and sold as organic, even though it was not in fact organically grown. The charging documents allege that, during the 2010 to 2017 period, each of the three farmers received more than $2.5 million for grain marketed as organic.
(snip)