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Senate committee advances Beneficial Substances Act to regulate emerging plant supplements
Summary
The Senate Conservation Committee voted to pass Senate Bill 231 as amended, adopting a registration, labeling and inspection framework for "beneficial substances" and adding a NMED-backed amendment to bar hazardous wastes; the measure creates a fee-funded program at the New Mexico Department of Agriculture.
Senator Shannon Boone introduced Senate Bill 231, the Beneficial Substances Act, to the Senate Conservation Committee and the panel voted to pass the bill as amended. The bill would require manufacturers and distributors to register “beneficial substances” with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, meet labeling standards, pay fees to cover inspections and testing, and allow the department to remove unsafe products from the market.
The bill’s sponsor described the measure as a response to a growing industry of materials that are not fertilizers or pesticides but that research shows can benefit plants or soils. Jeff Witte, New Mexico Secretary of Agriculture, told the committee the measure follows model language developed after a 2018 federal direction to define and regulate biostimulants and related products. Katie Laney, assistant division director at the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA), said the law would cover substances other than fertilizer or pesticide that scientific research shows benefit plants, soils, or growing media, and gave examples including humic acids, seaweed extracts and silicon-based products.
The department told the committee the program is intended to be fee-funded and to use existing fertilizer inspection staff with the addition of a registration specialist and one or two inspectors. Laney said the department already registers about 1,533 products under current soil conditioner definitions and cited a USDA estimate that the national industry represents roughly $2.2 billion in economic activity. Committee members asked whether potentially harmful contaminants such as PFAS would be excluded; NMDA staff said PFAS would be treated as an adulterant and would not be allowed registration.
Senator Saida (Sadia) Lopez offered an amendment adding language that would make any product containing hazardous waste as defined at 74-4-3(k) ineligible for registration unless the material was equivalent in composition to a beneficial substance. The sponsor accepted the amendment as friendly, and the committee adopted it. The committee then voted to recommend SB231 do pass as amended; the secretary announced a “unanimous due pass.”
If enacted, the bill would establish a registration and inspection pathway aimed at giving producers and retailers a clear route to bring non-fertilizer, non-pesticide products to market while giving NMDA authority to inspect, test and remove unsafe products. NMDA testified the program would be modeled closely on the national model document developed by the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials and informed by USDA work dating to the 2018 farm bill.
The bill does not appropriate general fund money for implementation; NMDA said the work would be supported by registration and service fees and modest new staffing. Committee discussion also flagged coordination with the New Mexico Environment Department on hazardous wastes and with New Mexico State University for technical expertise.
Votes at a glance: the committee adopted Senator Sadia Lopez’s hazardous‑waste amendment and later gave SB231 a due‑pass recommendation as amended (committee recorded the actions and announced a unanimous due pass).
