§ 2972. Powers and duties

(a) The Council shall administer and enforce this chapter and to that end shall plan and conduct dairy commodity advertising, publicity, sales promotion, and research and educational projects to increase the consumption of dairy products and to foster better understanding and more efficient cooperation between producers, dealers, and consumers of dairy products, and may contract for advertising, publicity, sales promotion, research, and educational services, and may employ and discharge advertising counsel, advertising agencies, dairy councils, and other agencies on a statewide, regional, or national basis as it shall deem the best interests of the State of Vermont for these purposes. It may disseminate information relating to dairy products and the importance thereof, either directly or through persons or parties contracted with.

(b) Included among the powers of the Council in connection with the enforcement of this chapter are the powers to require reports from any person subject to this chapter; to adopt, rescind, modify, and amend all proper and necessary rules and orders to administer this chapter, which rules and orders shall be adopted by publication in the manner prescribed by the Council and shall have the force and effect of law when not inconsistent with existing laws; to administer oaths, subpoena witnesses, take depositions, and certify to official acts; to require any dealer to keep such true and accurate records and to make such reports covering purchases, sales, and receipts of dairy products and related matters as the Council deems reasonably necessary for effective administration, which records shall be open to inspection by the Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets at any reasonable time and as often as may be necessary, but information thus obtained shall not be published or be open to public inspection in any manner revealing any individual dealer’s identity, except as required in proceedings to enforce compliance; to keep accurate books, records, and accounts of all of its dealings; and to make annually a full report of its doings to the House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry and the Senate Committee on Agriculture and the Governor, which shall show the amount of money received and the expenditures thereof. The report shall be submitted on or before January 15. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets shall perform the administrative work of the Council as directed by the Council. The Council shall reimburse the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets for the cost of services performed by the Agency.

(c) The Council is hereby authorized to accept contributions from individuals or organizations to augment its funds.

(d) The Council in allocating the monies it spends for the promotional purposes set forth in this chapter shall consider the sources from which the milk comes, the areas into which the milk goes, and the nature of the population that consumes the milk, so that funds may be allocated proportionately if desired.

(e) The Council shall cooperate with other State agencies in its plans for advertisement and promotion and in particular with agencies specifically empowered to advertise and promote this State.

(f) The Council is authorized to cooperate with the U.S. government and any Agency thereof charged with similar responsibilities in connection with research, marketing, and pricing in the dairy industry, including federal Milk Market Administrators and their staffs in federally regulated markets, and is authorized to cooperate with the appropriate agencies of other states for the purpose of making such investigations, securing and transmitting such information, making available such services and facilities, and exercising such other powers with respect to the administration of this chapter as it deems necessary or appropriate to facilitate its administration in cooperation with the administration of similar acts in other states.

(g) To the extent that in its judgment it may deem advisable to do so in administering this chapter, the Council is authorized to enter into agreements with U.S. government agencies, federal Milk Market Administrators, and state agencies of other states with respect to the collection or audit of tax payments and the use of joint facilities and joint services. (Added 1965, No. 175, § 59; amended 1989, No. 256 (Adj. Sess.), § 10(a), eff. Jan. 1, 1991; 2003, No. 42, § 2, eff. May 27, 2003; 2007, No. 207 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. June 11, 2008; 2021, No. 105 (Adj. Sess.), § 129, eff. July 1, 2022; 2023, No. 6, § 58, eff. July 1, 2023.)