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Michigan House moves forward bill to scrap obsolete potato dealer program
Michigan potato growers are asking state lawmakers to repeal an outdated licensing rule from the 1960s.
“This program, when it was put into place, made a lot of sense because there were a lot more potato distributors around the state,” she says. “The supply chain really has kind of shortened.”
The Potato Dealers Act requires wholesale potato dealers to register with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and carry a $100,000 bond to cover debts to suppliers in the case of the wholesaler filing bankruptcy.
Turner says the program was last used in the 1990s, and it wasn’t effective then.
“And there were quite a few farmers at that time who were affected,” she explains. “They were owed a lot of money, and even at that time in the ‘90s, this program didn’t cover 10 percent of the loss that those farmers incurred.”
The bill has moved out of committee and is slated for a second reading by the Rules Committee this week.
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