As used in sections 924.01 to 924.16 and 924.40 to 924.55 of the Revised Code:

(A) "Agricultural commodity" means any food, fiber, feed, animal, or plant, or group of foods, fibers, feeds, animals, or plants that the director of agriculture determines to be of the same nature, in either a natural or a processed state. "Agricultural commodity" does not include any of the following:

(1) Grain, as defined in section 924.20 of the Revised Code;

(2) Soybeans;

(3) Hemp, as defined in section 928.01 of the Revised Code.

(B) "Distributor" means any person who sells, offers for sale, markets, or distributes an agricultural commodity that the person has purchased or acquired directly from a producer, or that the person markets on behalf of a producer.

(C) "Handler" means any person who is in the business of packing, grading, selling, offering for sale, or marketing any agricultural commodity in commercial quantities as defined in a marketing program.

(D) "Marketing program" means a program that is established by order of the director pursuant to this chapter, to improve or expand the market for an agricultural commodity.

(E) "Operating committee" means a committee established to administer a marketing program for an agricultural commodity.

(F) "Person" means any natural person, partnership, sole proprietorship, limited liability company, corporation, society, agricultural cooperative as defined in section 1729.01 of the Revised Code, association, or fiduciary.

(G) "Processor" means any person who is in the business of grading, packaging, packing, canning, freezing, dehydrating, fermenting, distilling, extracting, preserving, grinding, crushing, juicing, or in any other way preserving or changing the form of any agricultural commodity.

(H) "Producer" means any person who is in the business of producing, or causing to be produced, any agricultural commodity for commercial sale, except that when used in reference to nursery stock, "producer" also means a distributor, processor, handler, or retailer of nursery stock.

Amended by 133rd General Assembly File No. TBD, SB 57, §1, eff. 7/30/2019.

Amended by 132nd General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 49, §101.01, eff. 9/29/2017.

Amended by 131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 471, §1, eff. 12/19/2016.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.144, SB 309, §1, eff. 12/26/2012.

Effective Date: 04-10-1985; 2007 HB217 03-24-2008