This chapter does not apply to or include any of the following:

(a) Any nonprofit cooperative association organized and operating pursuant to Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 54001), any nonprofit cooperative association organized and operating pursuant to any similar law of any other state, the District of Columbia, or the United States, or the agents of these organizations, except as to the activities of these organizations or agents which involve the handling of, or dealing in, any farm product of a nonmember of the organization.

(b) Any person or exchange that buys, receives, or otherwise handles any farm product as a processor, as defined in Section 55407.

(c) Any retail merchant who has a fixed or established place of business in this state. This exemption does not, however, apply to retail merchants who are also engaged in the business of selling, at wholesale, any farm product purchased from a licensee or producer. This exemption also does not apply to any transaction wherein possession of any farm product is obtained from a licensee or producer, and the farm product is sold to another person without being handled in the regular course of a retail business which is conducted at a fixed and established place.

(d) Any person who buys any farm product for his or her own use or consumption.

(e) Any person licensed as a distributor or handler under Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 61801) of Part 3 of Division 21 who purchases farm products from a dealer, broker, or commission merchant. However, this chapter applies to any such licensed person who purchases farm products from a producer.

(f) Any person licensed as a landscape contractor pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 7000) of Division 3 of the Business and Professions Code.

(g) Any person, not otherwise required to be licensed pursuant to this chapter, that buys or otherwise acquires possession of any farm product from, and processed by, a nonprofit cooperative association to which subdivision (a) is applicable.

(h) For the purposes of trading in cattle, any person engaged in the business of buying or selling cattle who is bonded under the federal Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921 (7 U.S.C. Sec. 181, et seq.).

(Amended by Stats. 1997, Ch. 696, Sec. 51. Effective January 1, 1998.)