Assemblyman Billy Jones (D-Chateaugay Lake) announced that a bill he sponsored to amend the state agriculture and market law to ease restrictions on imports and permit requirements for dairy farmers has passed the Assembly (A.7481).

“This bill will not only help New York consumers by providing them with a greater variety of dairy products, it will relax unnecessarily restrictive laws that can prevent dairy farmers from efficiently distributing their products,” Assemblyman Jones said. “Our hardworking farmers were hit particularly hard by COVID-19 and it’s critical that we do everything we can to support their recovery and future generations of dairy farmers.”

The bill changes current law in two ways. The first section of the bill removes the requirement to obtain a permit in order to import milk and milk products into the state. Permit requirements impose an unnecessary burden upon interstate commerce, since imported milk and milk products are already required to meet all standards and requirements applicable to milk and milk products produced or manufactured in New York. Repealing the permit requirement will benefit New York dairy farmers as many of them sell milk to processors and manufacturers, located out-of-state, that in turn sell and distribute milk and milk products in the New York.

The second section allows the state agricultural commissioner to make a partial payment to a dairy farmer who has not been paid for milk, if the defaulting dealer has secured its milk purchases by providing alternative security as opposed to the milk producers security fund. The law previously stated that this payment could only be made if the defaulting dealer had secured its purchases by paying into the milk producers security fund. This bill will correct this oversight and may enable certain dairy farmers to stay in business who, under the previous law, may not have been able to do so, noted Jones.