'Field of Schemes': Organic Farming’s Epic Fraud

Summary

Lawless Planet – “Field of Schemes: Organic Farming’s Epic Fraud”

Podcast: Lawless Planet
Host: Zach Goldbaum
Date: March 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode, “Field of Schemes,” tells the story of one of the largest organic food frauds in U.S. history, orchestrated by Missouri farmer Randy Constant. Host Zach Goldbaum unravels how Constant exploited the organic food system’s honor-based trust, flooding the market with conventional grain falsely labeled as organic. Through interviews with Glenn Borgerding, Constant’s former business partner, and federal prosecutors, the episode examines the systemic weaknesses that enabled the scheme, its ripple effects, and the personal and communal toll of the scandal.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Context: Organic Agriculture’s Booming Market

• Scene-Setting: The story begins at the Midwest Organic Agriculture Conference in La Crosse, WI, February 2016. Farmers, vendors, and industry insiders gather to make deals and share news. Among them is Glenn Borgerding, a consultant helping farmers transition to organic (00:01–02:18).
• Organic Premiums: The burgeoning organic market offered financial incentives for farmers willing to undergo the arduous certification process.
• Trust-Based System: “It’s built largely on the honor system, on trust. But a system like that is easily exploitable, and the impact when it collapses can ripple further than you can imagine.” — Zach Goldbaum (07:48)

2. Meeting Randy Constant: Partnership and Suspicion

• Origins: Glenn and Randy partner up in 2001, launching Organic Land Management, aiming to help conventional farmers go organic (13:02–14:45).
• Early Days: Glenn handles the paperwork, Randy wants to be hands-on. Initially, it’s a successful partnership riding the wave of a tripling in organic sales (15:13).
• Red Flags: 2006–07, Glenn notices secrecy, evasions, and accounting irregularities from Randy (16:41–18:37).
  • “He was just getting harder and harder to nail down.” – Glenn Borgerding (17:08)

3. The Scheme Unfolds: Fraud, Expansion, and Lifestyle Drift

• Suspicion Deepens: Glenn receives a call from a broker about unusually large grain shipments. Realizes the production numbers don’t add up (19:27–20:47).
  • “I don't know, 1,500 acres. And that’s when there was a really long pause…” – Glenn Borgerding (20:27)
• Industry Inaction: Glenn reports concerns to certifiers but is required to formally put accusations in writing, which he hesitates to do (21:08–21:41).
• Separation: Glenn and Randy part ways feeling the business is going flat, unaware of the scope of Randy’s deception.
• Randy’s Double Life: After the split, Randy’s business booms. He buys a failing tilapia farm as a front, pays family and escorts with fraudulent proceeds, and lives large—Las Vegas trips, luxury cars, and more (22:26–24:39).
  • “I didn’t think he had it in him to do that.” – Glenn Borgerding (23:43)

4. The Investigation: Cracking Open the Fraud

• Federal Scrutiny: In 2014, assistant U.S. attorney Jacob Schunk investigates after industry complaints about Randy’s suspiciously high and cheap organic grain sales (24:45–25:36).
• Discovery: Auditing reveals a multi-state, $100+ million fraud—non-organic grain sold as organic across the nation (27:10–28:58).
  • “We realized we had something particularly significant on our hands.” – Jacob Schunk (27:10)
• The Scale: Randy sold 11.5 million bushels over seven years; more than 90% falsely certified organic. Between 2010–17, up to 8% of U.S. organic grain for animal feed came from his scheme (31:32).
  • “There’s roughly a 1 in 10 chance during those years that...animal product marketed as organic, it would not have been exclusively fed through organic grain.” – Jacob Schunk (31:52)

5. Fallout: Legal Consequences, Stigma, and Tragedy

• The Unraveling: Randy is indicted, pleads guilty, and at sentencing, is depicted as both a trusted community member and a deliberate fraudster (32:06–34:18).
• Victim Impact: The crime harmed not just customers, but honest organic producers priced out of the market and betrayed consumer trust (35:58).
  • “They ended up paying money not only for something they didn’t get, but to contribute to the industry they specifically did not want to contribute to.” – Jacob Schunk (35:58)
• Sentencing: Randy receives over 10 years in prison, forfeiture of $128 million, and restitution orders (36:18–37:53).
• Suicide: Days after sentencing, Randy dies by suicide, leaving his family and former partner reeling with sadness and unanswered questions (38:08–39:21).
  • “He drove his car into the garage, shut the garage door, and left the engine running. And I just… I just had a meltdown…” – Glenn Borgerding (38:23)
• Broader Impact: Multiple co-conspirator farmers also plead guilty. Industry implements new, stricter anti-fraud guidelines in 2024 (40:13–41:23).

6. Rebuilding Trust: Reflections and Reform

• Cautious Optimism: Glenn, despite the pain, remains dedicated to organic ideals. He supports new fraud prevention but notes it creates burden for honest farmers (41:23–41:39).
  • “It’s a statement of what are you doing to prevent fraud happening on your farm? ...what steps are you taking to make sure that it’s fertilizer that’s used for organic production?” – Glenn Borgerding (41:39)
• Restoring Faith: Zach and Glenn discuss the need for personal vigilance, transparency, and community commitment to maintain integrity and trust.
  • “You shouldn’t disregard the organic label, but you should be cautious of it. Know the company...know who’s behind that label.” – Glenn Borgerding (42:24)

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Memorable Quotes

• “It’s built largely on the honor system, on trust. But a system like that is easily exploitable, and the impact when it collapses can ripple further than you can imagine.”
  — Zach Goldbaum (07:48)

• “That’s when I had kind of an ‘oh shit’ moment. What the heck is going on?”
  — Glenn Borgerding (20:42)

• “We realized we had something particularly significant on our hands.”
  — Jacob Schunk (27:10)

• “Randy sold 11.5 million bushels of grain over seven years, and more than 90% of it was falsely marketed as organic.”
  — Zach Goldbaum (31:32)

• “The judge says Randy was selfish and that he’s like the organic grain he sold, meaning that he himself is a fraud.”
  — Zach Goldbaum (36:18)

• “You shouldn’t disregard the organic label, but you should be cautious of it. Know the company that’s selling it. Know who’s behind that label.”
  — Glenn Borgerding (42:24)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:01–02:36 — Discovery of the investigation and suspicions about Randy Constant
• 07:48 — Zach on the flaws of the honor system in organics
• 13:02–14:45 — Formation of Organic Land Management with Randy and Glenn
• 17:08–18:37 — Growing suspicions and partnership breakup
• 19:27–20:47 — The grain broker call and revelation of improbable production
• 24:45–28:58 — Prosecutors investigate; learning the scale of the fraud
• 31:32 — Scope: 1/10 chance non-organic feed in “organic” meat
• 36:18 — Judge’s final condemnation and sentencing
• 38:08–39:21 — Randy’s suicide and aftermath
• 41:23–41:55 — New anti-fraud rules and Glenn’s assessment
• 42:24 — Glenn’s advice on organic label skepticism

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Summary

“Field of Schemes” is a sweeping exposé on the fragility of trust in the organic certification system and the dangers of leaving critical food supply chains to self-policed honor. Through the tragic arc of Randy Constant—a once-respected farmer who orchestrated a $142 million fraud—the episode charts the human and systemic failings that allowed widespread cheating, its impact on real organic farmers and consumers, and the efforts to repair the industry and regain trust. In the end, listeners are reminded that real integrity—like real farming—requires vigilance, transparency, and collective responsibility.

Transcript

[Zach Goldbaum]

Hey, it's Zach. Before we get started, I just want to mention that this episode contains discussions of suicide, so please take care. It's February 2016 in the city of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and it is freezing outside. But the weather hasn't stopped thousands of farm industry folks from all over the Midwest from making it to town for the biggest organic agriculture conference in the country. Equipment manufacturers, grain sellers, food co op reps, researchers, government and state agency officials, and farmers of all types are packed into this one conference center in downtown Lacrosse, right off the river. Nearly 4,000 people, with more than a few eager to make deals. And among the sea of attendees at a booth in the exhibit hall, and is Glenn Borgerding, a consultant from Minnesota who helps farmers who want to get into the organic business. Glenn is sporting his usual crew cut and chatting people up when he spots an old friend, a seed corn dealer that he used to do business with. They chit chat a bit, but then the dealer leans in.

[Glenn Borgerding]

He says, hey, when it gets slow on the trade show floor, just pop into my booth. I got something I want to talk to you about.

[Zach Goldbaum]

So a few hours later, Glenn walks over to the guy's booth, probably expecting to get some good farm gossip.

[Glenn Borgerding]

He shared with me he was being investigated, or questioned, I should say, by the FBI.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Turns out the feds have been asking the seed corn dealer about his business, and more specifically, they've been asking him questions about grain he sold to Glenn's former business partner, a man named Randy Constant.

[Glenn Borgerding]

And that was the first time I had any inkling that he was being investigated.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Glenn had often wondered if something was up with Randy Constant for years now. Some people would act strangely when Glenn brought him up.

[Glenn Borgerding]

When I would go to different functions, when I would mention his name, you know, they would get real quiet. And I never really understood that because it's like, okay, there's a history here that I don't understand.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Glenn never really worried about it. Things between him and Randy had been mostly good in the six years they were business partners. But by the time they decided to call it quits, Glenn had grown increasingly suspicious about how secretive Randy had become. And now Glenn had real reason to worry.

[Glenn Borgerding]

You're always concerned about fraud.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Organic food fraud, to be precise. That's the extremely niche crime of using one's organic certification to pass conventional food off as organic so you can charge more.

[Glenn Borgerding]

Didn't know what was going on, but I'm still blown away to this day that I was never contacted by the FBI.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Glenn won't know the full truth of what Randy's been up to until years later. But when he finally hears all the details, he's floored because Randy Constant will be accused of running the largest organic farming fraud in US History. From wondry I'm zach goldbaum and this is lawless planet. Each week we tell a new story about the true crimes fueling the climate crisis and the people fighting to save the planet or destroy it.

[Glenn Borgerding]

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[Zach Goldbaum]

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[Jacob Schunk]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for working.

[Zach Goldbaum]

If you've talked to me for more than, I don't know, 10 minutes, you probably know that I belong to the legendary Park Slope from Food Co Op. It's a member run cooperative in Park Slope, Brooklyn where for the privilege of buying groceries, you have to work a two hour and 45 minute shift every six weeks. That means every single person that buys food there also contributes their time to make the place function. To some people like me, it's a beautiful, successful human experiment. To others, it's a bit of a cult and kind of a punchline. Here's an old episode of Broad City making fun of the Co op. I haven't worked any of my hours and I have a really intense doctor's appointment in Long Island.

[Glenn Borgerding]

There's something more important in Long island than organic produce.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Brooklyn. Jokes aside, it's an amazing place. Beyond the lower prices, I'm willing to wake up at 5am to haul bananas or spend three hours in a basement bagging Hungarian goat horn peppers because the food is really that good. Ooh, okra. It's one of the only places that is both a socialist mecca and a maha paradise because the co Op emphasizes healthy, minimally processed foods that are largely organic. Which brings us to today's episode. Okay, so these Harry's berries strawberries are 15.75 each. Or should I get the non organic strawberries or a block 80? Can't be. Every trip to the grocery store comes with the same silent which items are worth the extra cash for that coveted organic label. I've always assumed that since it's organic, meaning no antibiotics or pesticides, it's just better. Better for me, better for farm workers, better for the planet. But that's only true if the label means what I think it means and that what I'm getting is in fact organic. But when it comes to our food, can we really trust what's on our plate? Do we understand where it comes from, how it was grown or how it was raised? How many hands did it pass through, and who was paid in the process? I'll be honest, I don't know the answer to any of that. But I do know that there's this whole process for deciding what is and isn't organic. It's built largely on the honor system, on trust. But a system like that is easily exploitable, and the impact when it collapses can ripple further than you can imagine. The first thing that Glenn Borgerding does when he encounters a farmer who wants to transition to organic farming is try to talk them out of it.

[Glenn Borgerding]

In organic production, you have to foresee whatever problems you could be having and work your systems to avoid those problems.

[Zach Goldbaum]

This is Glenn's way. He wants to weed out the uncommitted, the ones who are just in it to make a quick buck. Because Glenn knows that organic farming is hard and often frustrating. But if all his talk about the work involved doesn't turn a farmer off, then that farmer may have enough commitment

[Glenn Borgerding]

to actually make it work.

[Zach Goldbaum]

These are traits that Glenn learned growing up on his family farm in Minnesota.

[Glenn Borgerding]

It goes back to my dad. He was a dairy farmer and he uses the minimal Amount of herbicides.

[Zach Goldbaum]

His father didn't like using synthetic chemicals on his land, so he tried to limit their use. And that had an impact on Glenn.

[Glenn Borgerding]

We were very much into, you know, just not getting on that treadmill of buying the high levels of fertilizer and using a lot of herbicides and pesticides and things like that. We always try to be conservative when it comes to that type of thing.

[Zach Goldbaum]

And then in high school, Glenn got involved in the sustainable agriculture movement, which really went against the grain back then, pun intended.

[Glenn Borgerding]

All the way through the 70s, it was all about the chemicals were going to solve all our problems.

[Zach Goldbaum]

But then in the 80s, people's perception of the synthetic fertilizers started to change.

[Glenn Borgerding]

It was like, wait a minute, we're starting to see side effects, you know, of these problems. We got water issues, nitrates and pesticides in groundwater. We're seeing more erosion. So we're having more issue with algae blooms in lakes and so on and so forth. And there was just, you know, a minority of farmers that, you know, just now we're not going to go down that road, and chose to farm without those things. And that was something that really heavily influenced me.

[Zach Goldbaum]

But modern organic farming standards as we know them today didn't really take off until about 15 years later when the federal government introduced a little thing called the National Organic Program. Allow me for a moment to take you into the wonderful world of federal organic regulations. This is a world where food produced on a farm can't be sold as USDA organic until a certification agency certifies the farm that produced it. Of course, it wasn't always like this. Not long ago, in the 90s, your average chain grocery store didn't really carry organic. Back then, organic was niche, not to mention expensive. So if you wanted it, you most likely had to go to specialized health food stores or a farmer's market or the Park Slope Food Co Op. And if you dug a little deeper into that world, it would be clear that organic could mean just about anything. Here's an organic food producer in a news report describing the shenanigans around food labeling Back then, there was no rules

[Glenn Borgerding]

on packaging before, so anybody could. Even a single organic ingredient could list that organic ingredient on the front of the package, and it might make you think that the whole product was organic.

[Zach Goldbaum]

But strangely, there were rules that prohibited the labeling of meats as organic. It was all very chaotic. Then, at the turn of the 21st century, things finally started to make sense. This is the era of the National Organic Program, a framework that defines the US very first set of federal organic regulations in 2002. Now consumers will know if a product is at least 95% organic because it

[Glenn Borgerding]

will carry a USDA label.

[Zach Goldbaum]

The new federal rules codify which products can be labeled as organic and which can't. The ingredients should not be genetically altered and should be grown with minimal use of pesticides. Also, under the new rules, meat can now be labeled organic as long as the animals were fed using organic feed. Which brings us back to Glenn. Even before the regulations are put in place, farmers who produce feed grain begin to show an interest in going organic. Because though organic farming is more challenging than conventional farming, farmers who succeed in making the switch stand to make more money because organic feed grain sells at a premium now.

[Glenn Borgerding]

We had a tremendous market for feed grains where that wasn't as prevalent before, and so that was a really good thing.

[Zach Goldbaum]

And Glenn, he wants to help those farmers make that transition, which is how he ends up starting a brand new company in 2001 with a man named Randy Constant.

[Glenn Borgerding]

Randy just had a way of putting you at ease.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Glen and Randy first met in Missouri in the 90s. Glen had been hired by an organic grain brokerage to consult on their farm, which mainly grew soybeans. Glenn tested the soil and advised the company on how to maximize production. Randy and Glenn both got into organic farming early, and they both seemed to believe in the mission.

[Glenn Borgerding]

We really kind of bonded. It was a quick study, you know, we just really worked well together.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Glen learns that Randy is from a small town in Missouri, A place called Chillicothe, which is best known for being the birthplace of commercially sliced bread, which, to my mind, is the best thing since. Well, you know. He also learns that Randy's married to his high school sweetheart, and together they have three kids.

[Glenn Borgerding]

He was on school boards. He was very active in his church. His wife was a schoolteacher. Just normal Midwest values, it seemed like. And, you know, it was somebody I was just very comfortable with.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Eventually, Glenn starts thinking that the two of them might make good business partners. So when the opportunity arises, Glen explains his idea for a business.

[Glenn Borgerding]

To Randy, the idea was to work with particularly conventional farmers that had land that could be certified organic, but they didn't know enough about the industry or didn't understand what the opportunity was.

[Zach Goldbaum]

In 2001, Glenn and Randy launched the business. They call it Organic Land management. From the landowner's perspective, working with organic land management meant gaining access to Glenn and Randy's expertise while operating under the company's single organic certification. Even if the farms were Located in different states.

[Glenn Borgerding]

So it was kind of a deal where the farmer would own the crop, but we would own the certification.

[Zach Goldbaum]

In return for these services, Organic land management gets a cut of the farm's profits.

[Glenn Borgerding]

That was my initial vision for the company.

[Zach Goldbaum]

So Glenn becomes the guy in the office filling the paperwork.

[Glenn Borgerding]

Randy, on the other hand, wanted to get more involved in the direct farming itself. Rent the land, buy the equipment, and the arrangement works.

[Zach Goldbaum]

For the first four years or so, the business thrives in part because during this period, the demand for organic food goes through the roof. In 2000, US organic retail food sales totaled a little over $5 billion annually. By 2005, that number had tripled to around $15 billion. Part of the reason for the boom has a lot to do with how organic food is perceived. People believe it's better for the environment, which is mostly true, and that it's better for your health because you're exposed to fewer pesticides, which is also true, Although there's not a lot of evidence that it's any more nutritious. But no matter the reason, Glenn and Randy are ready to catch that organic food wave. And in the beginning, they make a good team. Randy was confident and helped calm Glen down When work got stressful, Just like

[Glenn Borgerding]

getting a shot of novocaine, it just. It puts you at ease that, okay, he's got this under control.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Within a few years, Organic land management is making real money. Randy and Glenn are able to pay themselves $100,000 a year. But Randy, he's not satisfied with just overseeing someone else's farm. He wants to farm himself. So even though that wasn't part of the original plan, Organic land management eventually starts to rent out its farmland and buys a bunch of its own equipment, too. Then, in 2006, the business suddenly goes flat.

[Glenn Borgerding]

2005 was a very decent year. 2006, that's when it started to get sketchy.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Glenn doesn't understand it, but organic land management isn't making money the way it used to, Even though Randy says the crops are doing well. Around the same time, Glen starts to have trouble getting ahold of Randy. Randy is always on the road and seemingly always busy.

[Glenn Borgerding]

He was just getting harder and harder to nail down. He wasn't picking up the phone like we used to spend hours on the phone.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Whenever Glenn does manage to get Randy on the phone, he acts kind of shifty.

[Glenn Borgerding]

It was harder to get straight information out of him. So my anxiety was starting to go through the roof. He'd say stuff like, you can come down anytime. Look at the crops. But when I would line it up, he says, well, this isn't a good week. Maybe next week. You know, that type of thing.

[Zach Goldbaum]

This started to hamper their annual organic certification process. A reviewer would ask for things like field activity logs. So glen would relay that information to randy, and randy says, okay, no problem.

[Glenn Borgerding]

I'll get it to you.

[Zach Goldbaum]

But the paperwork doesn't show up, and glenn has to keep reminding randy about it.

[Glenn Borgerding]

So you're going back and forth. Certifier. We can't move forward until we have these documents, and we're going after randy because we got to have that certificate. We're going to be selling the next year's crop, and there's a lot of stress in this office.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Randy is dropping the ball. He's distracted.

[Glenn Borgerding]

Randy was always the person that you always have to have a side business. And so he had a different company on the side. It was called jericho solutions.

[Zach Goldbaum]

With randy's attention elsewhere, organic land management starts to run out of money.

[Glenn Borgerding]

We were scrambling. The clock was ticking. Land rents were due, and we didn't have a lot of money left. And that's what ultimately led up to our parting ways.

[Zach Goldbaum]

In April 2007, the two decide to end their partnership. As part of the agreement, randy gets to keep the company name.

[Glenn Borgerding]

It was very amiable. We didn't have any issues with each other. You know, at that point, we just felt that for us as business owners, individuals, it was best to split and go off and do our own thing.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Glenn loses touch with randy after that. But within a few months of the filing, Glenn gets a phone call that forces him to rethink how things went down with the company.

[Glenn Borgerding]

There was a lot more going on than I realized. Foreign

[Zach Goldbaum]

it's the summer of 2007, and Glen is working on his solo consulting business when he gets a call. The person on the line says he's a grain broker and he's trying to reach randy.

[Glenn Borgerding]

I says, well, good luck with that. You know, I was in business with randy for six years, and I had a hard time getting a hold of him as well.

[Zach Goldbaum]

That's when the broker explains that he's hoping to get his hands on transaction certificates for specific loads of grain that he bought from organic land management before the company broke up. Problem is, Glenn doesn't remember this guy at all.

[Glenn Borgerding]

And I says, well, first of all, I don't ever recall selling grain to you.

[Zach Goldbaum]

So the broker tries to jog glenn's memory.

[Glenn Borgerding]

No, it's all those rail cars, Dozens of rail cars.

[Zach Goldbaum]

A rail Car can hold up to 100 tons of corn. So this guy is suggesting that Glenn and Randy sold him a lot of corn, and none of it makes sense. But the broker keeps talking, and he says he bought corn that Randy claimed had been produced in Missouri.

[Glenn Borgerding]

He asked me, well, how many acres of corn are you producing in the state of Missouri?

[Zach Goldbaum]

Len takes a minute to think about it.

[Glenn Borgerding]

I don't know, 1500 acres. And that's when there was a really long pause because he was calculating in his head how many acres it would take for us to grow all the corn that he was buying from us.

[Zach Goldbaum]

1500 acres couldn't possibly have produced that much corn.

[Glenn Borgerding]

That's when I had kind of an oh, shit moment. What the heck is going on?

[Zach Goldbaum]

The call ends, and Glenn doesn't know what to make of it. But his gut tells him that Randy has been up to no good. He suspects fraud of some kind.

[Glenn Borgerding]

I realized, you know, this could get pretty serious.

[Zach Goldbaum]

After receiving the phone call from that broker in 2007, Glenn Borgerding makes a call of his own to an organic certifier. Glenn tells the certifier that he and Randy worked with that they might want to send an inspector to do some spot checks on Randy's operation. But the certifying agency doesn't respond the way he hopes they will.

[Glenn Borgerding]

They responded back by saying, unless I'm willing to actually put it on paper and sign it, they weren't going to take it seriously.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Glenn decides not to pursue it any further. But he does start telling people he's close with in the industry that Randy might not be on the up and up. If this whole thing goes bad, then at least he'll be able to say that he tried to warn folks. It's not much, but it's all he feels he can do.

[Glenn Borgerding]

At this point, I felt I was in a lifeboat, pedaling away from the Titanic as fast as I possibly could. So when it would go down, I wouldn't be that close to it that I would get sucked down with it.

[Zach Goldbaum]

By 2010, three years after he and Glenn Borgerding split up, Randy Constant is making $16.5 million a year in sales of organic grain. And Randy loves a side hustle. So pretty soon, he comes up with this next big thing. He's going to buy a fish farm. He actually makes an offer to the owner of a tilapia farm in Colorado. During his very first visit to the farm, the owner is surprised. But eventually, Randy gets what he wants and names the place Quixotic farming. At first, the tilapia farm appears to be doing well, but in reality, Quixotic farming is bleeding money. That's because Randy's actually using the business to launder millions of dollars in fraudulent grain sales. He's paying 2 of his adult children a salary, even though they're rarely seen at the fish farm. It's a dumb way to run a business, and eventually, Randy runs it right into the ground. But not before living it up a bit, because Randy's a big shot now. He buys a family member a Cadillac Escalade and splurges on fancy family vacations. Randy also becomes a regular in Vegas. He gambles, attends rodeos, and MMA fights. And then there's his Vegas girlfriends, which is what he calls the escorts he hires.

[Glenn Borgerding]

I didn't think he had it in him to do that.

[Zach Goldbaum]

That's Glenn Borgerding, the farming consultant who used to work with Randy.

[Glenn Borgerding]

My early impressions of him was he was a pretty solid family man, a good relationship with his wife and his family, and I guess I was just blown away by that.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Among these escorts are three women who get large amounts of money from Randy. He pretends they're working for his businesses, and he pays them more than $200,000 that way. Randy even goes so far as sharing a secret bank account with one of them for more than a year. He uses that account to pay for a bunch of this woman's expenses, including her car payments, insurance, and a breast augmentation procedure to the tune of around $110,000. And yet, it's not the lavish spending that gets Randy in trouble when the feds start poking around. It's not even his failing fish farm that gets him on their radar.

[Glenn Borgerding]

Nope.

[Zach Goldbaum]

In the end, it was the grain sales that got him. All thanks to a tip from one of Randy's peers.

[Jacob Schunk]

We can't talk a lot about any specific individual tip. What I can say is that there were industry concerns that Mr. Constant was selling way too much organic grain for far too low of a price.

[Zach Goldbaum]

That's Jacob Schunk. Back in 2014, Schunk was an Assistant U.S. attorney sitting at his desk in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, District Court building that overlooks the Cedar River. And he's flipping through a binder full of information about a new case he's going to be working on. It involves a farmer who might be lying about the grain he's been selling.

[Jacob Schunk]

What we knew at the time is that there was suspicion, due to some public reports previously, that Mr. Constant had been marketing grain as organic. That was not actually organic per USDA regulations. So we had known that. Along with some recent activity that gave rise to the investigation.

[Zach Goldbaum]

An organic trader filed a complaint with the USDA about Randy earlier that year. The New Yorker later reported that the tipster, who has never revealed himself publicly, urged the USDA to not take this complaint lightly. When Assistant U.S. attorney Schunk first reads about the case, he feels like organic food fraud. How hard could this be?

[Jacob Schunk]

I recall thinking, oh, this shouldn't be terribly complicated. You can only grow so much organic grain and. And you can only sell how much you grow. So all we need to do is to figure out how much he could grow and how much he sold, and then we should have this wrapped up in short order. That turned out not to be as

[Zach Goldbaum]

accurate at the time. Organic corn is going for $400 a ton. Meanwhile, Randy is selling it for $375 a ton, undercutting the entire market. So he's raking it in. The case ended up being the biggest case I've ever worked. That's Tony Morphitt, another assistant U.S. attorney from Iowa, who ends up helping Schunk on the case. The initial steps of any white collar investigation such as this, a fraud investigation, involves subpoenaing a lot of records, and that includes bank records. It includes records from businesses that may have sold grain or shipped grain for Mr. Constance businesses. And it's getting a lot of documents and then having to go through those documents together. Schunk and Morfett pore over these documents for months, but in the end, it's the subpoenaed bank records that really drive home just how big the case is.

[Jacob Schunk]

We looked at the amounts going back and forth and withdrawn and deposited and withdrawn and deposited, and the numbers were so big and there were so many transactions that I think at that point, a switch flipped. And that's when we realized that we had something particularly significant on our hands.

[Zach Goldbaum]

More than $100 million worth of grain money going over state lines. Multiple farmers in different states, countless hours to try and trace money, to trace grain loads, to trace who was involved to the point where we eventually got what's called a forensic accountant from the FBI on board. The prosecutors find out that Randy brought in $24 million in organic farming sales in 2015 alone. In 2016, Randy makes another $19 million. But the numbers don't add up, because in 2016, the entire output of organic corn for the states of Missouri and Nebraska amounts to 2.4 million bushels of corn combined. But Randy somehow sold 1.8 million bushels all by himself. It's just not possible. So how is Randy pulling this off? The investigation eventually reveals that Randy isn't working alone. He has enlisted a handful of farmers to knowingly commit fraud right along with him.

[Jacob Schunk]

The scheme involved farms in different states growing almost exclusively non organic grain, non GMO grain. Mr. Constant would either he himself have farmers grow that grain, or he would buy it from individuals, and then he would then provide that to another person who would then be able to distribute it and sell it as though it was all organic, and he would get organic prices for that.

[Zach Goldbaum]

And the FBI investigation uncovers something else. To make this all work, Randy has taken to performing covert grain switching operations. What this means is that Randy gets conventional grain farmers to hand over their shipments in random and often deserted locations, like a Walmart parking lot or at the site of a former popcorn factory. The idea is that by meeting somewhere unexpected, Randy can conceal the true source of the grain that he's buying. And in exchange, these farmers get a cut of Randy's profits. Roughly three years into the investigation, Randy gets named to one of the most specific top 10 lists I've ever heard of. He's one of 2017's 10 success successful farmers in Successful Farming magazine. But Randy's moment in the spotlight is just beginning, because Assistant U.S. attorneys shunk and Morfitt have done just about everything they can to build their case without letting Randy know that he's the target of an investigation. And now it's time to bring the case out in the open. On a warm June morning in 2017, criminal investigators from the USDA's Office of the Inspector General show up at Randy's house in Chillicothe, Missouri. They have a warrant to search his home and seize materials that may be relevant to the case.

[Jacob Schunk]

At that point, the investigation changes its complete nature from being something that is largely covert to something that is completely overt.

[Zach Goldbaum]

You never know how the subject of an investigation might react to having their house searched. So over the next few hours, Assistant U.S. attorneys Jacob Schunk and Tony Morphitt sit at their desk in Iowa, anxiously waiting for updates.

[Jacob Schunk]

It would be misleading to suggest that we weren't thinking about this all day long and waiting for our phones to ring and calling the agents to see how things are going and then calling Tony to see what to do next, and then calling the agents back and seeing who's talking, who's not talking, what types of things have they initially seen?

[Zach Goldbaum]

The two prosecutors have been trying to figure out which growers have been working with Randy. Finally, they get a call. By the time the agents are done searching Randy's home, they've gathered a bunch of materials that will add support to Schunk and Morphitt's final conclusions. Randy and his friends, they were selling

[Jacob Schunk]

a whole bunch of stuff that was never organic to begin with.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Randy sold 11.5 million bushels of grain over seven years, a huge amount and more than 90% of it was falsely marketed as organic. This meant that between 2010 and 2017, roughly 7 to 8% of the organic grain that was sold for animal consumption across the US was connected to Randy's scheme.

[Jacob Schunk]

Which means there's roughly a 1 in 10% chance during those years that had you purchased an animal product marketed as organic, it would not have been exclusively fed through organic grain.

[Zach Goldbaum]

But most shocking is how easy it was to do. All Randy did was exploit the honor based system that was basically the foundation of organic food production in the US at the after the arrest, Randy's picture perfect life starts falling apart. He gets indicted and pleads guilty to wire fraud. He sells his house. His wife has returned to teaching to support them. And now he's awaiting sentencing. The hearing is scheduled for August 16, 2019, the day of his 39th wedding anniversary. Ahead of the hearing, Randy signs a statement that details some of the things he spent his money on, including family vacations and more than 20 trips to Vegas. He writes that he, quote, developed sexual relationships with three women during his travels to Vegas and in two instances he paid the escorts through his business, although, quote, in reality the woman did little of value in exchange. In total, he writes, I transferred over $2 million to entities related to these women. Here's U.S. attorney Tony Morfett. Where the money goes is important. Somebody who is getting money to live a lifestyle that they otherwise wouldn't be able to, that can pay for excursions to Las Vegas, that can pay for escort services for other people and then also pay the expenses of, in Mr. Constance's case, three other women. That's just something for the judge to know. In an attempt to soften Randy's image, Randy's defense lawyer also submits 98 pages of letters of support, letters written by people who know him. The letters are sealed, so we weren't able to obtain copies. But Glenn told me that he wasn't surprised to hear that so many people chose to submit one.

[Glenn Borgerding]

I think they knew him like I knew him, at least in the early days, that he was a decent guy. I guess that's the real mystery. About it all, you know, how you can get turned like that. I just really feel bad for his family, particularly his wife. I mean, imagine sitting in the courtroom and all this stuff came out. Just brings tears to my eyes.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Finally, the day of the hearing comes. Randy's wife Pam is seated behind him in the audience. During the opening statements, the judge says that Randy took advantage of a government food label that conveys a sense of trust in consumers, adding that, quote, swindlers who take advantage of that shield jeopardize the confidence consumers have in the market and the confidence that consumers have in the US Government. Randy's lawyer speaks next. He argues for a lighter sentence. He says that Randy wasn't some criminal mastermind who drew a Rube Goldberg scheme to cheat the market. Rather, Randy committed a crime that was much simpler and therefore more difficult to resist. Ultimately, Randy was a good person who did a bad thing. Next, the judge hears from the U.S. attorney's office. Schunk speaks and reminds the judge that this is the largest known organic fraud case in the history of the United States. All told, Randy fraudulently sold approximately $142 million worth of crime grain over seven years. But the actual amount of loss to consumers was many times that. It was exponentially more. Most of the grain that Randy sold fed livestock that were eventually sold as organic meat products to consumers. And because of Randy's grains, that meat wasn't actually organic. And a lot of people were fooled and cheated in the process, according to Morfitt. So we don't believe this was a victimless crime. Schunk tells the judge that Randy didn't just harm the people who bought his grains at a premium, but also American consumers at large.

[Jacob Schunk]

They ended up paying money not only for something they didn't get, but to contribute to the industry that they specifically did not want to contribute to, which was the non organic farmer. These folks wanted to pay extra money to support organic farming and to buy organic chicken breasts and to support the people, people who grow it and to follow the rules and who do it well.

[Zach Goldbaum]

But even though the prosecutors put all this information together, they still don't have a true tally of the damage Randy caused, because the people he harmed the most probably don't know it. These are the organic producers who did things right. Chunk says the people who followed the rules and therefore couldn't compete against Randy's fraudulently low prices. And we'll never know how many sales those people lost out on because of Randy. As for the claim that Randy somehow stumbled his way into committing this Crime Schunk doesn't buy it. Randy got other people to commit these crimes with him. He knew what he was doing, and for a long time, he got away with it. Toward the end of the hearing, Randy gets his turn to speak. He apologizes to the court and to the people he hurt, including his wife and children. And he says that while my future is uncertain, certain I will do my best to navigate the unknown. The judge isn't sympathetic. He says Randy was selfish and that he's like the organic grain he sold, meaning that he himself is a fraud. The judge sentences Randy to a little over 10 years in prison, plus three years of probation. Randy also has to forfeit $128 million in proceeds from his schemes, as well as his farming equipment. Finally, the judge orders Randy to pay restitution to the US government in the amount of about $200,000.

[Glenn Borgerding]

I was up with a buddy of mine up in Door county, and he had a boat.

[Zach Goldbaum]

In August 2019, Glenn Borgerding, Randy's former business partner, was on a friend's boat in Wisconsin when he got a phone call.

[Glenn Borgerding]

I got the call and I just went, you know, underneath, you know, the sleeping quarters of the boat.

[Zach Goldbaum]

In the privacy of the boat cabin, Glenn gets the news that his former business partner, Randy Constant, is dead. Glenn is stunned.

[Glenn Borgerding]

He drove his car into the garage, shut the garage door, and left the engine running. And I just. I just had a meltdown. And it's just one of those moments that just hit me so hard, you know, that he actually did that to himself.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Randy's sentencing hearing had taken place just three days before, and he was allowed to return home for a few weeks before the start of his prison term. Glenn later heard that a story about his sentencing had been published in a local news outlet on the day he died.

[Glenn Borgerding]

It had published the story about Randy Constant was charged with, you know, these charges, and they referred to Randy Constant, formerly of Chillicothe, Missouri. And, you know, I'm just assuming that when you heard that he really felt, you know, that he was a total outcast.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Randy's wife Pam, released a statement after his death. In it, she expresses shock and says, quote, I know Randy was deeply ashamed of his conduct. As much as we tried to be there for him, it was clearly just too much for Randy. Randy Constant was 60 years old.

[Glenn Borgerding]

I was really sympathetic toward him because I knew the other side of him. And, you know, that's not justify what he did in any way.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Glenn told me that he planned to visit Randy once he started serving time.

[Glenn Borgerding]

In prison mainly to ask him like, what happened back there, what was going on? And I don't know how to explain it, but you know, I was never the type that he's bad, he deserves to be damned. And you know, that type of thing. It's like people make mistakes.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Randy's death was tragic, but this story doesn't end there. Because Randy wasn't the only farmer exploiting the weak enforcement mechanisms that govern the American organic food industry. Well, on regional news now, five farmers have now pled guilty in a massive organic grain fraud case that involved at least $140 million in sales. Four other farmers pled guilty to wire fraud or conspiracy to commit wire fraud in 2019, all in connection to Randy Constance scheme. And in the years that follow, other farmers get caught committing similar crimes.

[Glenn Borgerding]

There's a lot of egg on people's faces and it caused the industry to really look at, okay, what do we need to do to work hard in preventing fraud issues?

[Zach Goldbaum]

In 2024, the US government implements stricter guidelines for organic labeling. The changes also affect the organic certification process on US Farms. Organic farmers in the US are now required to come up with a program to prevent fraud. The whole thing feels a little burdensome to farmers who have been following the rules the entire time.

[Glenn Borgerding]

So the average well intentioned organic farmer it just what are we doing this for? Why do we have to do this?

[Zach Goldbaum]

But Glenn says he gets it. The new requirements won't prevent every single fraud case, but he thinks they'll reduce the rates overall.

[Glenn Borgerding]

Basically, it's a statement of what are you doing to prevent fraud happening on your farm? Let's say you were purchasing fertilizer and what steps are you taking to make sure that it's fertilizer that's used for organic production?

[Zach Goldbaum]

It's possible that people who heard about cases like Randy's have lost confidence in our food system. And I don't blame them. But I'm also willing to bet that there are other larger issues eroding that trust. Food recalls, factory farming, ultra processed ingredients, agricultural runoff, degrading our waterways, you name it. If we're going to restore that trust, it's about more than just a label. It's about educating yourself about how food ends up on your plate.

[Glenn Borgerding]

I think you shouldn't disregard the organic label, but you should be cautious of it. Know the company that that's selling it. Know who's behind that label.

[Zach Goldbaum]

In talking to Glenn Borgerning for this story, I got the sense that he really believes in this stuff. He's been at this for a long time and he's kind of an organic food evangelist. And to my mind, that commitment is exactly what's needed for the system to work and for it to benefit the planet. Because like any good system, whether it's organic food or the Park Slope Food Co Op, it only functions if every member works and does its part. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please reach out immediately to the Suicide prevention lifeline at 988 or text home to the crisis text sign at 741741. These services are free and confidential. On the next episode of Lawless Planet. When residents of South Memphis start experiencing strange health symptoms, all signs point to their new neighbor. A massive AI data center owned by the richest man in the world. The most man individuals on our planet don't see folks of different wealth categories as deserving of our human rights to clean air. They also are willing to sacrifice our planet. For today's episode, we relied heavily on the New Yorker article the Great Organic Food Fraud by Ian Parker and Mike Hendricks reporting on Randy Constant and the Kansas City Star, as well as trial documents from the Department of Justice's case file. Flawless Planet is produced and hosted by me, Zach Goldbaum. This episode is written by Ariel Duom Ross. Our senior producer and senior story editor is Derek John. Senior producer for Wondery is Andy Herman. Our senior managing producer is Lata Panya. Our managing producer is Jake Kleinberg. Our associate producer is Lexi Perry. Sound design by Kyle Randall. Music by Kenny Kusiak. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez. For Frison Sync. Fact checking by Brian Pugn. Our legal counsel is Shepard Mullen. Executive producers are Marshall Louie and Jenny Lauer. Beckman from Wondering. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

[Glenn Borgerding]

Wonder.