Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black has launched an investigation into allegations of improprieties at Stanley Farms, the Vidalia, GA, onion facility acquired last year by interests connected to billionaire Bill Gates.

Black and officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture held an emergency public meeting in Vidalia May 7 with a packed room of Vidalia onion growers to hear allegations that Stanley Farms recently processed as many as 400 truckloads of conventional yellow Florida onions at the same facility where it processes Vidalia onions without separating the two as required by law, an infraction that carries a fine of $5,000 per incident up to $20,000.

Growers at the meeting also raised allegations that Stanley may have packed those Florida onions as Vidalias. According to statute 2-13-134 of the Georgia Vidalia Onion Act of 1986, misrepresenting other onions as Vidalias is a felony carrying potential punitive measures consisting of “a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $5,000 or by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than three years, or both.”

Officials from Stanley Farms did not return phone calls or emails from The Produce News.

The state of Georgia owns the Vidalia trademark and the department of agriculture is charged with protecting it. The meeting was held at the behest of the advisory panel of the Vidalia Onion Committee. According to growers in attendance, Black and his team went directly to Stanley Farms following the meeting and launched an investigation, which is continuing today.

Julie McPeake, director of communications for the department of agriculture, confirmed at noon May 8 that “there is an investigation, but it is an open investigation so I can’t comment on any of the details. It’s so fluid right now, things are happening rapidly, all we can confirm is there is an investigation.”

Asked if there was a timeframe for concluding the investigation, McPeake said, “We got the word at 10 o’clock last night that it was open, so no not at this point.”

One well-placed Vidalia grower who requested anonymity told The Produce News that the advisory panel had asked that action be taken by 5 p.m. today and that at least one grower is preparing for alternate means of redress in court. “We’ll give [Commissioner Black] ‘til 5 o’clock – at 5 o’clock we will start working on a class action lawsuit if there’s not immediate action.”

At issue is the ferociously defended Vidalia trademark. Over two decades ago Vidalia growers were granted a federal marketing order protecting their crop. Stringent rules apply to the packaging and labeling of Vidalia onions, including prohibitions against comingling Vidalias with other onions in a processing facility.

One grower who witnessed events that led to the investigation told The Produce News, “The Stanleys have done something wrong. I don’t know what it is, the only thing I do know is that they have been unloading yellow onions grown out of state in the same warehouse that they’re unloading their Vidalia onions and have been packing some out of the same warehouse. There’s conflict of interest there. I hope with everything in me that [Stanley Farms] haven’t done this and I hope the only thing they’ve done wrong is pack the two in the same facility. But I have a feeling it’s not because there’s been an extra 400 loads [of Vidalias] shipped [from] the region this year according to the USDA report that have not been normally shipped this time of year. [Other Gates’-connected agriculture holdings have] 400-500 acres [of onions] in Florida. You do the math.”

Another grower told The Produce News he assigned employees to watch the Stanley facility for several days and that potential improprieties were observed. Another said he followed trucks from Florida to the Stanley facilities and watched them unload.

Reportedly, some of these events were video-recorded.

Growers’ suspicions were aroused when Stanley Vidalia onions hit the market several days ahead of any others. Some say Stanley’s organic deal may allegedly also be involved. Much of the organic Vidalia crop, which represents just a tiny fraction of overall acreage, was lost to disease, but other growers say Stanley Farms has shipped organic Vidalias this season.

Said one grower, “When the season started [Stanley shipped] more onions than what they dug and had dried onions before anybody and were shipping two or three days before anybody else. This is a small area and you know where everybody’s [harvesting]. Organics did not make a crop in Vidalia this year – disease ate them up. The regular onions have been fine, but there are no organic onions. But Stanley had plenty of organics. So we’ve been watching it real close.”

“This is something we’ve tried to protect ourselves against ever since the beginning and something that will unite the growers in the Vidalia industry,” said another grower. “This is not about a season-opening date, a shipping date, or nitpicking over quality. This is disastrous. This is a game-changer. This is the end if something’s not done about it.”