Indiana Seed Weblog

             The House Committee on Agriculture approved HB 1059, authored by Rep. Kreg Battles (D), a measure that revises the state’s commercial fertilizer law. The bill, which was supported by the Indiana Farm Bureau, authorizes the state chemist to charge up to $50 for certification and education programs and it establishes civil penalties for violating the commercial fertilizer law (the fertilizer law now requires that any violation be treated as a crime, but the state chemist has no authority to impose administrative penalties on violators without charging them with a crime; and most prosecutors simply don’t want to be bothered with minor fertilizer law violations).  

All producers who spread nutrients over 1 00 acres or more will be required to be certified under rules currently being developed, and the applicability to manure, a nutrient major river pollutant, is also under scrutiny.  

Sam Turpin