266.091. Director of agriculture to enforce provisions and requirements--rules and regulations to be adopted, procedure--laboratory--cooperation with others.
Director of agriculture to enforce provisions and requirements--rulesand regulations to be adopted, procedure--laboratory--cooperationwith others.
266.091. 1. The duty of enforcing sections 266.011 to 266.111 andcarrying out its provisions and requirements shall be vested in thedirector of the department of agriculture. It shall be the duty of thedirector, individually, or through his authorized agents:
(1) To sample, inspect, make analysis of, and test agricultural andvegetable seeds transported, sold or offered or exposed for sale withinthis state for seeding purposes, at such time and place and to such extentas he deems necessary to determine whether the agricultural or vegetableseeds are in compliance with the provisions of sections 266.011 to 266.111,and to notify promptly the person who transported, sold, offered or exposedthe seed for sale, of any violation;
(2) To adopt, after a public hearing, such reasonable rules andregulations necessary to secure the efficient enforcement of sections266.011 to 266.111, including the promulgation of definitions of termsrelating to the enforcement of this law;
(3) To follow the established rules and methods on analysis aspracticed by the Association of Official Seed Analysts and recognized bythe seed testing laboratories of the United States Department ofAgriculture;
(4) To use tolerances, on pure seed, germination, weed seed and othercrop as published in the rules for seed testing by the Association ofOfficial Seed Analysts when taking regulatory action in the administrationof this law.
2. Further, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions ofsections 266.011 to 266.111, the director of the department of agriculture,individually, or through his authorized agents, is authorized:
(1) To enter upon any public or private premises during the regularbusiness hours in order to have access to seeds subject to the law and therules thereunder;
(2) To issue and enforce a written or printed "stop-sale" order tothe owner or custodian of any lot of agricultural or vegetable seed whichthe director of the department of agriculture finds is in violation of anyof the provisions of sections 266.011 to 266.111, which order shallprohibit further sale of the seed until the officer has evidence that thelaw has been complied with and the owner or custodian shall have the rightto take such steps as may be possible to bring the seed into compliance,such as recleaning, retesting, or relabeling. In respect to seeds whichhave been denied sale as provided in this subdivision, the owner orcustodian of such seeds shall have the right of appeal from the order tothe circuit court of the county or city in which the seed is found, prayingfor a judgment as to the justification of the order and for the dischargeof the seed from the order prohibiting the sale in accordance with thefindings of the court;
(3) To maintain a laboratory with necessary equipment withinappropriations, and is authorized to assign any of his employees withoutadditional salary to aid in the administration of sections 266.011 to266.111, and shall further be required to secure an analyst or analysts andother necessary employees and designate reasonable remuneration therefor,for the proper enforcement and carrying out of the provisions of sections266.011 to 266.111. It shall be the duty of the director, within hisdiscretion and appropriations, to publish or cause to be published theresults of the examinations, analyses and tests of these samples ofagricultural seed or mixture of such seed, drawn as provided for insections 266.011 to 266.111, together with any other information thedirector may find advisable. If the director publishes the violations ofany seedsman he shall publish the violations of all seedsmen over the sameperiod of time;
(4) To consider for regulatory purposes vegetable seed packetscontaining one pound or less deficient in germination, when by compositetesting, a variety of vegetable seed of a single labeler is found deficientin germination. The method used to determine germination deficiency invegetable seed packets will consist of germination analysis on at least onepacket collected from each of ten different distribution points within thestate. If five or more packets are found deficient in germination, thatvariety, or lot if distinguished by lot numbers, for that labeler will beconsidered deficient. A "stop-sale" will be issued on that variety or lotin all distribution points known by the director to be offering thevegetable seed packets for sale, and those places of business and thelabeler of the seed will be notified;
(5) To gather information necessary to restrict the sale ofuncertified seed sold by variety name when that variety has been granted acertificate of protection under the Plant Variety Protection Act whichspecifies sale only as a class of certified seed;
(6) To cooperate with, and enter into agreements with, any otheragency of this state, the United States Department of Agriculture, and anyother state or agency thereof, for the purpose of carrying out theprovisions of sections 266.011 to 266.111, and securing uniformity ofregulations.
3. No rule or portion of a rule promulgated under the authority ofsections 266.011 to 266.111 shall become effective unless it has beenpromulgated pursuant to the provisions of section 536.024, RSMo.
(L. 1951 p. 5 § 266.090, A.L. 1957 p. 13, A.L. 1978 H.B. 1634, A.L. 1979 H.B. 57, A.L. 1993 S.B. 52, A.L. 1995 S.B. 3)