Terms Used In Michigan Laws > Chapter 286 > Act 316 of 2000 - Michigan Organic Products Act

• Agricultural product: means any agricultural commodity or product, whether raw or processed, including any commodity or product derived from livestock that is marketed for human or livestock use or consumption. See Michigan Laws 286.903
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• annual meeting: when applied to townships, mean the annual meeting required by law to be held on the Saturday immediately preceding the first Monday in April. See Michigan Laws 8.3d
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• certified: means a determination made by a registered certifying agent that an agricultural product has been produced and handled in compliance with the Michigan organic standards. See Michigan Laws 286.903
• Certifying agent: means an entity registered by the department that certifies production or handling operations or portions of production or handling operations as meeting the Michigan organic standards. See Michigan Laws 286.903
• Commingling: means the mixing together of or physical contact between unpackaged organic products and nonorganic agricultural products during production or handling. See Michigan Laws 286.903
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Department: means the Michigan department of agriculture. See Michigan Laws 286.903
• Director: means the director of the department or his or her designee. See Michigan Laws 286.903
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Handle: means to sell, process, or package agricultural products. See Michigan Laws 286.905
• Handler: means any person engaged in the business of handling agricultural products as organic products including producers who handle crops or livestock of their own production. See Michigan Laws 286.905
• Handling operation: means any operation or portion of an operation that sells, transports, receives, or otherwise acquires agricultural products as organic products and processes, packages, or stores such organic products. See Michigan Laws 286.905
• in writing: shall be construed to include printing, engraving, and lithographing; except that if the written signature of a person is required by law, the signature shall be the proper handwriting of the person or, if the person is unable to write, the person's proper mark, which may be, unless otherwise expressly prohibited by law, a clear and classifiable fingerprint of the person made with ink or another substance. See Michigan Laws 8.3q
• Ionizing radiation: means gamma-ray emissions from radioactive isotopes such as cobalt-60 or cesium-137; x-rays; electron beams; or any other radiation capable of altering a food's molecular structure, used for purposes that include, but are not limited to, controlling microbes, pathogens, parasites, and pests in food, preserving a food, or inhibiting physiological processes such as sprouting or ripening. See Michigan Laws 286.905
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Labeling: means all labels and other written, printed, or graphic matter upon an article or any of its containers or wrappers or accompanying the article. See Michigan Laws 286.905
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Livestock: means any cattle, sheep, goat, swine, poultry, captive cervidae, ratites, or equine animals used for food, fiber, feed, or other agricultural based consumer products, wild or domesticated game, or other nonplant life including fish or bees. See Michigan Laws 286.905
• Michigan organic standards: means those organic production and handling standards defined by this act, rules adopted under this act, or both, that are designed to combine organic production or handling practices and an audit trail that will ensure the integrity of organic products from the producer to the consumer. See Michigan Laws 286.907
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Organic: means a labeling term referring to an agricultural product produced in accordance with the standards described in this act, rules adopted under this act, or both. See Michigan Laws 286.907
• Organic advisory committee: means the committee created under section 25. See Michigan Laws 286.907
• Organic agriculture: means an agricultural management system that enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity to produce healthy plants and animals and fosters human and environmental health. See Michigan Laws 286.907
• Organic plan: means a plan of management of an organic production or handling operation that has been agreed to by the producer or handler and the certifying agent and that includes written plans concerning all aspects of agricultural production and handling as described in this act, rules adopted under this act, or both. See Michigan Laws 286.907
• Organic product: means agricultural products including, but not limited to, crops, livestock, livestock products, or other agricultural products that are produced organically for human or livestock use or consumption. See Michigan Laws 286.907
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means an individual, group of individuals, contractor, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, joint venture, cooperative, community supported agricultural entity, or any other legal entity. See Michigan Laws 286.907
• person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, as well as to individuals. See Michigan Laws 8.3l
• Processing: means processes that include, but are not limited to, cooking, baking, heating, drying, mixing, grinding, churning, separating, extracting, cutting, fermenting, eviscerating, preserving, dehydrating, freezing, or other manufacturing process and includes the packaging, canning, jarring, or otherwise enclosing of food in a container. See Michigan Laws 286.907
• Producer: means a person who engages in the business of growing or producing agricultural products. See Michigan Laws 286.907
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Right of rescission: Right to cancel, within three business days, a contract that uses the home of a person as collateral, except in the case of a first mortgage loan. There is no fee to the borrower, who receives a full refund of all fees paid. The right of rescission is guaranteed by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). ^{Source: OCC}
• Sewage sludge: means solid, semisolid, liquid, or ash residue generated during treatment of domestic or industrial sewage in a treatment works. See Michigan Laws 286.909
• state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories belonging to the United States; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Synthetic: means a substance that is formulated or manufactured by a chemical process or by a process that chemically changes a substance extracted from naturally occurring plant, animal, or mineral sources except those substances created by naturally occurring biological processes. See Michigan Laws 286.909
• United States: shall be construed to include the district and territories. See Michigan Laws 8.3o