Fresno — Another California fertilizer company owner – the second in less than a month – has been sentenced to prison for manufacturing and selling fertilizers falsely represented at organic. Kenneth Noel Nelson Jr., 59, of Bakersfield, was sentenced Nov. 19 in federal court to 6½ years in prison. Nelson, who operated Port Organic Products and a string of affiliated businesses, also will be required after his prison term is completed to serve three years of supervised release, forfeit three automobiles, and pay a personal money judgment of $9 million. Additionally, Nelson will owe restitution to victims in an amount that remains to be determined by the court. According to court documents, between 2003 and 2009 Nelson defrauded customers by manufacturing and selling fertilizers labeled as “Agrolizer,” “Marizyme,” and “Fishilizer” and others represented as produced purely with materials authorized for organic agriculture, such as fish meal and bird guano. Nelson admitted that he actually caused large amounts of synthetic materials not permitted in organic fertilizers or organic agriculture to be used in the fertilizers. According to court documents, as part of Nelson’s scheme to defraud, he submitted false applications and documentation to have his fertilizers listed as organic, failing to disclose such contents as aqueous ammonia, ammonium sulfate, and urea. This allowed him to produce his fertilizer products at a lower cost, causing customers to pay over $40 million for purportedly organic fertilizers that actually contained synthetic materials not permitted to be used in organic agriculture and produce for himself profits of over $9 million through 2008.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain