Major Pesticides Marketer Sells Contaminated Bird Seed, Gets Fined by EPA

Only yesterday, Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, which specializes in marketing gardening and lawn care products, was sentenced to pay roughly $12.5 million (€9.84 million) after being found guilty of knowingly selling bird seed contaminated with pesticides.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this company did more than just spray its wild bird food products with insecticides. Thus, it also took to falsifying several registration documents, most likely so that it would be able to distribute its products on the market.

Moreover, it seems that the labels for these products were misleading, meaning that customers were not fully informed with respect to how these bird seeds could impact on the environment on even on their health.

Naturally, these activities go against the US Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which is why EPA had no choice but to file legal charges and make this company assume responsibility for its actions.

What is even more interesting is that, as the official press release on this matter informs us, the eleven criminal violations of FIFRA committed by this company constitute the largest criminal penalty under FIFRA up until now.

The amount of money this company is expected to soon pay is to be divided as follows: $4 million (€3.14 million) will represent a fine, $6 million (€4.72 million) are to go in penalties, and $2 million (€1.57 million) will need be spent on various environmental projects.

As well as this, Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is expected to perform community service.

Speaking on behalf of EPA, Cynthia Giles made a case of how, “The misuse or mislabeling of pesticide products can cause serious illness in humans and be toxic to wildlife.”

“As the world's largest marketer of residential use pesticides, Scotts has a special obligation to make certain that it observes the laws governing the sale and use of its products. For having failed to do so, Scotts has been sentenced to pay the largest fine in the history of FIFRA enforcement,” added assistant attorney general Ignacia S. Moreno.