The Federal Public Ministry archived the representation subscribed by Rio Grande do Sul councilors Ramiro Stallbaum Rosário (PSDB), from Porto Alegre, and Silvio Roberto Flores de Almeida (PP), from Nova Santa Rita, against two cooperatives of rural workers in Rio Grande do Sul.
Considered unfounded by the MPF, the representation of the two parliamentarians reported a possible practice of misleading consumer advertising by the Cooperative of Settled Workers of the Porto Alegre Region (Cootap) and the Cooperative of Agricultural Production Nova Santa Rita (Coopan).
The MPF’s decision on filing was taken in June, but only this week was the cooperatives’ legal department informed.
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In the representation, the councilors reported that they carried out analysis of two samples of organic rice produced by the cooperatives – whole grain and whole cateto –, which are certified by the IMO and by the Union as an organic product, whose results would have accused the presence of pesticides 2,4- D and quinchlorac. Faced with this supposed result, the councilors claim that the rice could not have been marketed as organic.
Contrary to what the councilors claimed in the representation, reports No. 2748-01 and 2748-02, relating to the samples sent by them to the Pesticide Residue Analysis Laboratory (LARP) of the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), indicated that no pesticides analyzed were detected in the samples.
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According to the lawyer for the cooperatives, Alice Hertzog Resadori, “the damages arising from the conduct of the authors of the representation are being discussed in the civil sphere, in a lawsuit distributed in the 6th Civil Court of the Judicial District of Porto Alegre, having already been determined, in an injunction, to removal of posts and articles published by councilors and their lawyer, Maurício Fernandes, who utter fake news about organic rice produced by cooperatives”.
Source: BdF Rio Grande do Sul
Editing: Katia Marko
