News
Wisconsin’s certified seed potato bill clears state Senate, grazing bill on hold
The Chairman of the Wisconsin State Senate Agriculture Committee says legislation that would give the state’s certified seed potato law additional enforcement tools passed the Senate unanimously Tuesday and advanced to the Assembly. Patrick Testin tells Brownfield Senate Bill 164 would increase fines from $150 dollars to $5,000, plus an additional $5,000 for each acre planted in violation. “Our potato crop was valued last year at 320 million dollars and then the certified seed that gets grown here in the state, which is roughly 96-hundred acres, that’s valued at 75 million dollars and so it really puts in jeopardy the entire crop and so we just wanted to make sure there was certainty and give DATCP a little bit more teeth when it comes to enforcement.”
The bill would also allow the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection the authority to remove and destroy uncertified seed potatoes. The bill would not change the existing certified seed potato exemption for growers planting under five acres. Assembly Bill 154 is the companion bill.
Another agricultural bill moving through the Capitol would establish a transition to grazing pilot program within the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Testin says the bill,SB113 and companion bill AB118, is very popular with both Democrats and Republicans but is on hold for now. “We’re sort of waiting on one court case to get settled out that’s working its way through the State Supreme Court that, you know, how it impacts what is or isn’t an appropriation bill and so we’re waiting for some clarity on that as we navigate this new landscape with the Supreme Court.”
Testin says much of the effort in Madison is focused on creating the state budget. There are still public budget hearings next week in Hayward and Wausau, and the Republican-controlled legislature and Democratic Governor Tony Evers are not in agreement on state spending.
AUDIO: State Senator Patrick Testin discusses the seed potato bill and the transition to grazing pilot program bill with Brownfield’s Larry Lee.
