H.B. 369 Agriculture and Food Amendments: transcript

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Committee. It's good to be back in this committee again. Um, this is the annual cleanup bill for the Department of Ag and Food. And, uh, as compared to previous years, this is very short. Uh, changes that they've made, amendments, uh, there's just seven of 'em. I'll touch on 'em briefly. On agricultural water optimization is just to change a word from child to may. Uh, and the Conservation Commission Act, it clarifies the amount, the, uh, AG Resource Development loans. AL funds can be used for emergency disaster relief, uh, under weights and measures. Uh, it adds an expend expendable special revenue fund, uh, to allow unused dedicated credit revenue for a large equipment purchase under the Livestock Brand and Anti-Theft Act, it removes some language, which, if you'll notice on the amendments, uh, in committee, uh, in the house, uh, it talks about tattoos and, uh, so forth. You can see those amendments. And, uh, the next item was registration of farm names. Uh, this was an interim study item from Natural Resources, which remove statute sections, allowing farms to register their names through UDAF because there haven't been any registered for many years. And the Farm Bureau supported that. Uh, the agricultural Advisory Board membership, uh, was updated, uh, to reflect the new name of the USU Ag and Natural Resources Dean. And finally, conservation districts, uh, add, uh, language to give the commissioner authority to remove district board members for cause. But the conservation districts, uh, have to, to, uh, approve that. And the, the conservation districts are okay with that change. And, uh, with that, uh, Mr. Chair, uh, happy to answer any questions. I, I do have, uh, Connor here from U daf if he would like to add any comments, if that's okay, Mr. Chair?

Connor Peterson, director of Legislative and Government Affairs, uh, with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. Um, we're just really grateful for Representative Albrecht for running this cleanup bill for us again, um, this year and, and are thankful for, for his support. And, uh, we're, we're happy to answer any questions. We have some, some folks from our department in the room and also online. So happy to, um, answer any questions. But, uh, Representative Albrecht did a great job on the presentation.

It does. Thank you. Definitely cleanup. It just builds all over the place on just small items to address and, and that happens. So I appreciate your attention to it.

I can do it in way shorter than that. My name's Sierra Nelson. I'm Executive Director for the Utah Wool Growers Association, and I'm super glad for Zoom today because I am in snow up to my eyeballs, and I could not be more thrilled. I really wanted to express our support for this bill and our appreciation for the sponsor for running it. You know, anytime we do stuff with the Department of Ag, we just have such great partners. So I'd really encourage you guys to pass this out favorably. Thank you so much.

Senator Hankins light is on. Ready to go. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would make a motion. We pass out house bill 360 9 with a favorable recommendation.

A motion representative. I'll waive, Waive Senator, I'll waive.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, this is the, uh, annual, uh, AG and Food Amendment cleanup. Bill. Uh, I have Amber Brown with me from Department of Ag, uh, to help me present this, but I just want you to know that last year's bill was a whole lot longer than this one. And this is very small in comparison. There's only seven changes that are made in their cleanup bill this year. Uh, under the Agricultural Water Optimization program, there's a few changes from shall to may. Um, uh, under Conservation Commission Act, it clarifies the amount that the Ag Resource Department loans. AL Funds can be used for emergency disaster relief under weights and measures. It adds an expender expendable Special Revenue Fund to the Weights and Measures Act. Uh, under the Livestock Brand and Anti-Theft Act, it removes the language that allows tattoos or marks on the brisket area for brand inspection. And Mr. Chair, I believe there's a, an amendment that, uh, Representative Chew would like to make on that. Item five, uh, registration of farm names. Uh, in this was an interim study item. Uh, it removes statutes, sections, allowing farms to register their names through UAP, because no, no, no. Farm has been registered for many years and the Farm Bureau supports that change. Uh, number six, agricultural Advisory Board membership, uh, just updates the membership of the AG Advisory board, uh, to, to, uh, reflect the new name of the Utah State Ag and Natural Resources Dean. And under conservation districts, it adds language to give the commissioner authority to remove a conservation district board member for cause. Uh, with the council approval and the, the conservation disc, uh, districts asked for that change. Those are all the changes under the cleanup bill for AG and Food amendments. Uh, Mr. Chair?

Yeah, I, I don't really have any. I speak your name. My name is Amber Brown, deputy Commissioner for the Department of Agriculture and Food. Um, thank you Mr. Chair. I don't really have anything to add. Representative Albrecht has covered it well, but we obviously support this and appreciate his help getting these things updated.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to, uh, reserve the right to make a motion Or not to action Yet. Action yet. Okay. I, I've got a, I've got a question then. Uh, so, uh, um, to the sponsor, uh, or, or maybe to, uh, Amber. So, um, in line, uh, 2 95, we, we, uh, ha have in our current statute that, uh, that brands are including a, a tattoo or a cutting and shaping of the ears or brisket. And we've proposing to change it so we're not, uh, talking about a tattoo or, uh, uh, what, what we on the range refer to as waddled. And, uh, I have some concern about that. Why, why is that being, uh, proposed to be, um, to not be included? Yeah.

Mr. Chair, if I may. Um, so, um, uh, Representative Chew, I've spoken to our brand program and our understanding is that nobody has registered a tattoo or the brisket area as a brand for many, many years, even even decades. And we were just trying to clean that up because it wasn't being used as a registered brand. However, if you and the committee would like to keep that language in, we're, we're okay with it.

So, uh, what about the tattoos? 'cause you know, we currently, uh, is, is required that we have tattoos on our, uh, in our bangs, uh, uh, program. Bruce Osis. Well, why are we, uh, talking about, uh, removing tattoos also, Uh, Mr. Chair, I, I'm not sure if that's a different, is that separate from the brand? And there might be somebody here that could speak to that better than me, but I,

Garrett, Wade Garrett, vice President of Utah Farm Bureau. I, I went through this with the brand as well. Uh, the tattoo in the ear will still be recognized. This is only that brisket area that's being cleaned up and removed. So a brand or tattoo in the brisket. This is not removing the ear tattoo or the lip tattoo, which I think still will be Recognized. Yeah. We're not touching that for brucellosis. So, uh, representative, it's just that brisket area. Um, when I talked to them, 'cause I, I asked a similar question to make sure it was on the same page because we do use the tattoo in some areas. So that's why

It's okay. I, um, I, if, if I might continue, uh, Mr. So I appreciate that. I was, I was anticipating that was possibly what it was. I have some families in my area that some of the, what the kids of grandpa, rather than than registering a, a different brand than what the family's using, they were contemplating using, uh, uh, a brisket, uh, cutting as an, uh, probably an addition to the brand that they have. It would, instead of having to, to, uh, on their, their, uh, herd of cattle, instead of having to have multiple hot Iron brands on their cows. In fact, it's a family owned, uh, ranch and, and permits Why? That's how that, a number of years ago, that's how the siblings identified each other's cows. So, uh, I would, I would, I would, uh, probably oppose removing that. It, it does look like it's a cleanup, but I don't feel that we necessarily, um, I think we still need to leave that option open.

And Mr. Chair, if that's the desire of the Representative Chew and the committee, we're, we're okay with that. We were just trying to clean it up. So if that helps increase flexibility, that's fine.

I may, just to clarify if I Yes, yes. Go

Troy Forrest, deputy Commissioner of the Department of Ag Representative Chew the, the waddles still in it. If you read down the next line, it's still an identifying mark can be used as separate. So we're not trying to remove it at all. 'cause I know of several instances in San Juan County, Can you talk into the mic? Sorry, I'm too tall for your mic. That's right. Know of several instances in San Juan County where guys still use Waddles too. But those will still be identifying marks that are used and can be, it's not trying to remove those in any way. Just the tattoo.

Okay. So, uh, okay. Uh, I, I understand, you know, that, that, uh, if we're talking about a tattoo that's, uh, 'cause you know, a waddle and our, our hot Iron brands, a lot of times, you know, this time of the year when we normally have cold weather, we have a longer hair on our cows, and they're harder to see in this much. The waddle expedites the opportunity to identify critters. Yeah. And so, uh, I see, uh, I still see a, a, a use. It's a little different than, than guys did years ago when they were, uh, you know, uh, but I, I still see a use for it tattoos as far as being a, a brand, if we're talking, it's a little different, like you said, than for sure than the ear or the lip one that we're doing with, uh, Bruce Osis. I, I can see where a a tattoo's not, you know, you'd definitely have to put a critter no matter how well a tattoo's applied to, uh, you'd have to put the critter in a chute to, to read the identification mark. And that kind of, uh, what changes the purpose of what a lot of our brands are for is, is, is a quick identification. So, uh, I would probably be, uh, I would be, uh, I haven't had any, anybody with concerns about the tattoo part of this, but definitely the waddle part. Yeah. Agreed. So, uh, anyway, anyway, yeah,

I appreciate the answer to those questions. You

Wait, Gary, again, vice President Utah Farm Bureau. Uh, we support this cleanup bill, and it is way shorter than last year. Representative, um, uh, went through, uh, some of the things that were ated. It's just good to always, I think, be looking at it. And Farm Bureau worked with the representative and with U DAF to make sure there was nothing our producers were concerned about. And we can report back that we do support this bill, and we found no concerns from our producers. So thank you for the good representative for being willing to run it again for us.

Okay. My name's Sierra Nelson and I'm the Vice Chair of the Utah Sportsman's Caucus. And I also am the director of the Utah Wool Growers Association. So I, I didn't know which hat to give you guys, both of them, all of them, because everybody loves this bill and wants to support it. And I encourage you all to do the same. So thanks for your time today.

Uh, yes, Mr. Chairman, I, I'd like to reserve the right to make a motion. Okay. That's in order. Um, you know, we had a, we had a, uh, a discussion, uh, uh, largely around, uh, uh, a concern that a, a family of mine in my area brought up. And, uh, I, I have an amendment, uh, prepared, but I'd kinda like to amend my amendment a little bit as, uh, and I would, I would like to, to instead of, uh, eliminating the part about, uh, shaping the brisket, uh, I'd like to put that back in. But I definitely, uh, fill it. Uh, having a tat a tattoo as a brand probably, uh, is, uh, not something that's, that is all that practical in, in the livestock business. And, uh, we do still use tattoos, like we said, but specialty, you know, in the ear and the lip, uh, indicate certain things like the bangs program. So I'd like to, uh, move that, uh, or I'd like to, uh, move the amendment, or I guess, is that what, what my, uh, I had an amendment, but I wanna adjust my amendment. How, how do I do that? This can staff, uh, give me a little guidance here.

That would, is that What you Wanna do? That that'll, if that works for what I'd like to do with the honor, it sounds like it will. Well, let's go that route. So I'd like to move that we adopt amendment one in my name.

A friendly amendment. I, I'll go along with Representative Juab.

So I would like to make an adjustment on the amendment. Is that, uh, would that probably be a proper way to, to proceed A verbal amendment? A verbal amendment? I'd like to do a verbal amendment and, and eliminate the tap two part of my amendment and just say, uh, the shaping of the ears or brisket area.

That's fine, Mr. Chair.

So now I'd like to, uh, make an a motion. Is that in order? If I, if I Could continue, I was gonna place the motion of what? Oh, we need to place that motion. You're right. Yeah. Okay. Excuse me, Mr. Chair. So the motion is to strike tattoo, right? That we strike tattoo in line 2 96, including cutting or shaping of ears or brisket area. Is that correct? Tattoo or So a strike tattoo, or does that take care of your Amendment? Yes. That, that, that's what I, that's my verbal amendment. Yes.

So, um, I'd like to make a motion that we pass out favorably, um, HB 360 9 as amended and verbally amended, or I just as committee amended. How do I say that part? That's good. Okay.

With a favorable motion. I think that's a, a good bill. And it is definitely shorter than some in the past have been.

House Bill 360 9, agriculture and Food Amendments by Representative Alrich. This bill was heard in Natural Resources, agriculture and Environment with the vote 10 0 4

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Uh, this is the annual, uh, department of AG and Food Amendment bill, uh, cleanup bill, if you will. It only has seven changes this year compared to a whole lot of before. Uh, I can go into those if you'd like me to. Uh, the agricultural water optimization just had a slight word change from Shell, shell to May. The Conservation Commission Act, uh, clarified the amount of ALE funds that can be used for emergency disaster relief. The weights and measures section, uh, will allow unused, uh, dedicated credits to be used for large equipment purchase. There was an amendment to the Utah Livestock brand, uh, anti-Fat Act by the good representative from UN County. That's online Amendment two, uh, registration of farm names. We haven't had anybody register their farm names for many years, so they removed this section. The, uh, ag, uh, advisory board membership, uh, was updated to, uh, uh, reflect the name of the USU AG and Natural Resource Dean and the conservation district, uh, section was add the language to give the commissioner authority to remove, uh, district board members for cause with, uh, with the Conservation district's approval. And they supported that. That's basically the bill. Mr. Speaker,

Thank you, Mr. Speaker Al waive

Thank you Mr. President. What this bill does is it addresses provisions related to the Department of Agriculture and Food deals with several ways that the commissioner of can deal with his board. It deals with the way some food is and grants are, are handled primarily. That's what this bill does. I'm open for questions. Thank you for the presentation.

This bill addresses provisions related to the Department of Agriculture and Food deals with how they set up their board. It deals with different foods that how they brand them. This is what it does. I'm open for questions

For summation and a motion I waive summation and make a motion that House Bill 360 9 pass.

Hinkins, uh, Thank you Mr. President Prote. This, uh, bill expands the definition of environmental actions to include judicial review