Bill Text: NJ A732 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires Department of Agriculture and certain consulting agency partners to study and report on regulatory compliance cost obligations of specialty crop growers.
Spectrum: Unknown
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Commerce, Economic Development and Agriculture Committee [A732 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A732-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman MICHAEL TORRISSI, JR.
District 8 (Atlantic and Burlington)
SYNOPSIS
Requires Department of Agriculture and certain consulting agency partners to study and report on regulatory compliance cost obligations of specialty crop growers.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act requiring the Department of Agriculture to study and report on regulatory compliance cost obligations of specialty crop growers in New Jersey.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. As used in this section:
"NJAES Cooperative Extension" means the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Cooperative Extension.
"Regulatory compliance costs" means the financial costs that are expended by a specialty crop grower in order to comply with air or water quality standards, pesticide or herbicide regulations, labor or workers' compensation requirements, or other statutory or regulatory requirements applicable to specialty crop growing operations, including, but not limited to, the financial costs expended thereby in obtaining any liability insurance or legal assistance necessary to ensure such compliance.
"Specialty crop" means fresh fruits, dried fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, culinary herbs or spices, medicinal herbs, or other horticulture, floriculture, greenhouse, or nursery plants, which: are subject to human cultivation or management; are produced and used for human food, medicinal purposes, or aesthetic gratification; and satisfy all other eligibility criteria, established by the United States Department of Agriculture, as necessary to qualify for specialty crop categorization under federal law. "Specialty crop" does not include: any plants federally designated as controlled dangerous substances; any plants, such as canola, soybeans, sugar cane, hay, alfalfa, clover, barley, rye, sorghum, millet, cotton, flax, rice, quinoa, corn, cottonseed, flaxseed, tobacco, hemp, mustard, peanuts, safflower, sugarcane, sugar beets, and sunflowers, which are cultivated, managed, or used for seed oil, bio-energy, animal feed or foraging, grain, or fiber; any naturally occurring population of wild plants that is collected and used by people for food, medicinal purposes, or aesthetic gratification, unless such wild plant population is subject to management or monitoring by humans, as necessary to ensure the population's long-term sustainability; and any other plants that are expressly identified, by the United States Department of Agriculture, as being ineligible for specialty crop categorization under federal eligibility standards.
"Specialty crop grower" means a person who grows or otherwise cultivates or manages a specialty crop.
b. Within 180 days after the effective date of this section, the Department of Agriculture, acting in consultation and cooperation with the Department of Environmental Protection and the NJAES Cooperative Extension, shall commence and complete a comprehensive study to review and evaluate the regulatory compliance cost obligations applicable to specialty crop growers in New Jersey. In conducting the study, the department and its consulting partners shall, at a minimum:
(1) review all laws, rules, and regulations that are applicable to specialty crop growers and specialty crop growing operations in the State and, based on such review, identify all of the regulatory compliance costs for which specialty crop growers in New Jersey are liable;
(2) survey and consult with specialty crop growers in each of the northern, central, and southern regions of the State in order to determine: (a) the actual dollar amounts annually expended by specialty crop growers in each such region, and on a Statewide basis, for all applicable regulatory compliance costs; (b) whether, and the extent to which, the regulatory compliance cost amounts paid by specialty crop growers are variable, from grower to grower, based on the size of the specialty crop growing operation, the region in which the specialty crop growing operation is located, the type of specialty crop being cultivated or managed, or other relevant factors; and (c) the nature of any specific concerns that specialty crop growers may have in relation to their ability to pay all applicable regulatory compliance costs; and
(3) compare the cost-related data acquired pursuant to paragraph (2) of this subsection with comparable data obtained from other states in order to determine whether, and the extent to which, the regulatory compliance costs expended by specialty crop growers in this State equal, exceed, or otherwise differ from, the regulatory compliance costs expended by specialty crop growers in those other states.
c. Within 180 days after the regulatory compliance cost study is completed pursuant to subsection a. of this section, the Department of Agriculture, in consultation and cooperation with the Department of Environmental Protection and the NJAES Cooperative Extension shall prepare and submit, to the Governor and, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Legislature, a written report of findings and recommendations from the study. The report shall:
(1) identify all of the regulatory compliance costs that specialty crop growers in the State are required to pay;
(2) identify the actual or approximate dollar amounts annually expended by such specialty crop growers, in association with the payment of applicable regulatory compliance costs, in each of the northern, central, and southern regions in the State;
(3) indicate whether, and the extent to which, there are variations in regulatory compliance cost requirements or in the dollar amounts actually expended by specialty crop growers in paying applicable regulatory compliance costs, and identify the nature and extent of any such cost variations and the factors contributing thereto.
(4) indicate whether, and the extent to which, the regulatory compliance costs expended by specialty crop growers in New Jersey equal, exceed, or otherwise differ from, the regulatory compliance costs expended by specialty crop growers in other states;
(5) identify areas of law, rule, or regulation wherein regulatory compliance costs could be reduced or eliminated for specialty crop growers without negatively affecting public health, safety, or welfare or the State's natural resources, preserved farmland, or environment, and recommend the adoption, revision, or repeal of relevant laws, rules, and regulations, and the undertaking of other appropriate actions, by the Governor, the Legislature, and the State's executive departments and agencies, as may be necessary and appropriate to reduce or eliminate the burden of regulatory compliance costs on the State's specialty crop growers; and
(6) include any other information, statistical or financial data, or suggestions for reformative action in this area, as may be deemed by the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Environmental Protection, or the NJAES Cooperative Extension, to be appropriate.
2. This act shall take effect immediately, and shall expire on the 30th day following the submission of the report required pursuant to subsection c. of section 1 of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill would require the Department of Agriculture (DOA), within 180 days after the bill's effective date, and acting in consultation and cooperation with the Department of Environmental Protection and the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) Cooperative Extension, to commence and complete a comprehensive study to review and evaluate the regulatory compliance cost obligations applicable to specialty crop growers in New Jersey (i.e., persons who grow or otherwise cultivate or manage a specialty crop).
"Specialty crop" is defined to mean any fresh fruits, dried fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, culinary herbs or spices, medicinal herbs, or other horticulture, floriculture, greenhouse, or nursery plants, which: are subject to human cultivation or management; are produced and used for human food, medicinal purposes, or aesthetic gratification; and satisfy all other eligibility criteria, established by the United States Department of Agriculture, as may be necessary to be categorized as a specialty crop under federal law. The term would not include: any plants that are federally designated as controlled dangerous substances; any plants, such as canola, soybeans, sugar cane, hay, alfalfa, clover, barley, rye, sorghum, millet, cotton, flax, rice, quinoa, corn, cottonseed, flaxseed, tobacco, hemp, mustard, peanuts, safflower, sugarcane, sugar beets, and sunflowers, which are cultivated, managed, or used for seed oil, for bio-energy, for animal feed or foraging, for grain, or for fiber; any naturally occurring population of wild plants that is collected and used by people for food, medicinal purposes, or aesthetic gratification, unless such wild plant population is subject to management or monitoring by humans, as necessary to ensure the population's long-term sustainability; and any other plants that are expressly identified, by the United States Department of Agriculture, as being ineligible for specialty crop categorization under federal eligibility standards.
In conducting the regulatory compliance cost study pursuant to the bill, the DOA and its consulting partners would be required to: (1) review the laws, rules, and regulations that are pertinent to specialty crop growers and growing operations in the State and identify all regulatory compliance costs for which specialty crop growers are liable; (2) survey and consult with specialty crop growers in each of the northern, central, and southern regions of the State in order to determine the actual costs expended by such growers, the nature and extent of any cost variability, in this regard, the factors contributing to such cost variability, and the specific concerns of in-State growers in relation to their payment of such regulatory compliance costs; and (3) compare the in-State cost-related data obtained by the DOA and its consulting partners with comparable data obtained from other states in order to determine whether, and the extent to which, the regulatory compliance costs expended by specialty crop growers in New Jersey equal, exceed, or otherwise differ from, the regulatory compliance costs expended by specialty crop growers in those other states.
Within 180 days after the regulatory compliance cost study is completed, the DOA, in cooperation with its consulting partners, would be required to prepare and submit, to the Governor and Legislature, a written report of findings and recommendations from the study, including recommendations for the adoption, revision, or repeal of relevant laws, rules, and regulations, and the undertaking of other appropriate actions, by the Governor, the Legislature, and the State's executive departments and agencies, as may be necessary and appropriate to reduce or eliminate the burden of regulatory compliance costs on the State's specialty crop growers. Thirty days after the submission of the report, the bill would expire.
