Should New Hampshire resurrect its in-state meat and poultry inspection service it abandoned more than three decades ago?
The issue has emerged in the past few years as a number of smaller meat and poultry farms have sprouted up throughout the state. Later today, the Senate will likely pass House Bill 339, which would establish a meat inspection services administrator.
Proposals to allow New Hampshire farmers to grow hemp and to establish a pharmaceutical buyback program are among the more the 30 bills that were scheduled for votes today, before the latest snowstorm canceled the session. Overall, 26 bills from nine House committees were rolled into the House Consent Calendar.
Here we highlight three proposals that were put on the regular calendar: Pharmaceutical take-back programs, industrial hemp production, and unrestricting sports agents. They will likely be moved to next Wednesday’s regular calendar.
The Senate will hold its session tomorrow (Feb. 3) at noon.
New lawmakers start their orientation tomorrow, Gov. Lynch and the lame-duck Executive Council meet Wednesday, the next House Speaker will be chosen by Republican House members on Thursday and Lynch’s budget hearings commence Friday. There will be no shortage of activity at the State House this week.
As candidates have canvassed New Hampshire to gear up for today’s elections, at least half of the private property they’ve criss-crossed is considered to be in “current use.” The current use property tax status was designed to promote the preservation of open space. It may not be a deal-breaker for campaigns, but you can bet it’s a deal maker for property owners. Roughly 2.9 million acres are now in current use. That’s almost 51 percent of all the private property in the state, including parts of every city and town, owned by almost 40,000 people.
While the 2010 campaign season reaches full-fever pitch, last year’s legislative work still continues with many study committees and commissions. Here are a few we’re keeping an eye on, followed by a short explanation of how these study committees operate.
More of New Hampshire agriculture is at stake this year than whether cider or milk is named as the New Hampshire state beverage—although that question is stirring quite a debate.
The House Environment & Agriculture Committee is set to make recommendations on Feb. 18 about genetically modified organisms. Specifically, they’re deciding if genetically modified seeds should be labeled as such, and what rights farmers have if genetically modified organisms from other fields accidentally drift into their crops.